Chelsea vs Crystal Palace Possible line-ups key stats and preview

Chelsea is set to face Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on Saturday on the Premier League matchday 4.

Team news
Chelsea
Billy Gilmour and Hakim Ziyech are ruled out of the game. Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic are doubts; however, both are likely to feature from the start or off the bench.

Antonio Rudiger and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are unlikely to take part in the game. The same might apply to Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who is linked with a potential move to Bayern Munich.

Ben Chilwell and Edouard Mendy will probably make their Premier League debuts for the Blues.

Crystal Palace
Gary Cahill, Patrick van Aanholt, James Tomkins, Connor Wickham, Nathan Ferguson and Michy Batshuayi are out. Jeffrey Schlupp and Scott Dann are doubts.

Stats to know
Chelsea has won five successive matches against Crystal Palace.
The last time the Eagles beat the Blues was in October 2017 to give manager Roy Hodgson his first league victory with the club.

Palace has won just two of their 11 top-flight away games against Chelsea (D1, L8).
None of the last 18 Premier League meetings has finished level, with Chelsea winning 14 matches to Palace's four.

Chelsea has ended the last two seasons with the best record in Premier League London derbies and took 16 points from eight such matches in 2019-20.

Roy Hodgson has lost six consecutive Premier League matches at Stamford Bridge since winning his first such encounter with Blackburn in April 1998.

Probable line-ups
Chelsea: Mendy; James, Thiago Silva, Christensen, Chilwell; Kovacic, Kante; Mount, Havertz, Werner; Abraham

Crystal Palace: Guaita; Ward, Kouyate, Sakho, Mitchell; Townsend, McCarthy, McArthur, Eze; Zaha, Ayew

Score predictions
Mark Lawrenson, BBC: Chelsea 2-0 Crystal Palace
"So, I am going to go with Chelsea to break down Palace - they have definitely got the tools to do that, even though the Eagles always keep things pretty tight. If they get a clean sheet too, then I'd imagine Frank will be ecstatic."

Manchester City and Scotland midfielder Caroline Weir, BBC: Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace
"Chelsea did well to come back from 3-0 down against West Brom last week but I think this will be a bit more straightforward for them, even though Palace have started the season pretty well."

WhoScored: Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace
"Following three negative results in succession against Premier League opposition having far from convinced in their season opener at Brighton either, it's fair to say Chelsea's exciting new recruits are taking time to gel."

SportsMole: Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace
"Palace were desperately unfortunate to lose last weekend and will put up a good fight, but their record against Chelsea is poor and we expect the hosts to just about edge it again this time around."

Quotes from the managers
Frank Lampard on Roy Hodgson
"His career is beyond exceptional. I have so much respect for him and the way he carries himself. There won't be any touchline spat between me and Roy."

Roy Hodgson on Frank Lampard
"I think he's been excellent, shown tremendous composure and maturity. He's not afraid to spend money where available, his start in management has been really good but I'm not surprised."