Chelsea vs Crystal Palace 03/10/20

3 October 2020

Chelsea will be looking to post a sixth consecutive Premier League win over Crystal Palace when the two sides meet at Stamford Bridge this weekend.

Accruing a win, a draw, and a loss from their opening three Premier League fixtures, the hosts have had a turbulent post-lockdown league action (W6, D1, L4). Chelsea’s top-flight action this term usually sparks into life after half-time, as 66.67% of the goals scored/conceded in the first three Premier League matches arrived in the second half of play. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme remains quite significant in the context of Chelsea’s home success in 2020, as five of their seven home league victories since the turn of the year have seen Frank Lampard’s men shut out their visitors of the day. Additionally, both of their home Premier League losses since the calendar flipped have come via the identical 2-0 scoreline.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace’s perfect league start (W2) was brought to a halt last time out as Everton ran out 2-1 winners at Selhurst Park, which means both of their previous Premier League results (wins/loss) have seen the winner on the day fail to keep a clean sheet. Going back to February, none of Palace’s eight league trips have ended in a draw (W3, L5), with seven of those matches yielding a full-time margin of over 1.5 goals while six seeing the winning side shut out the loser. Yet, it will be a daunting prospect for the ‘Eagles’ to pick up three points here, as they’ve lost all three of their last top-flight trips to Stamford Bridge, conceding over 1.5 goals in each.