An enticing London derby awaits in the Premier League on Saturday. We look ahead to the clash at Selhurst Park with our Crystal Palace vs Chelsea prediction and preview.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Stats: The Key Insights
- Despite their three-game winless run, Chelsea are the favourites as they triumphed in 48.2% of pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer.
- Chelsea have won 12 of their 15 Premier League away games against Crystal Palace (D1 L2).
- No player was involved in more goals in England’s top flight during 2024 than Cole Palmer (26 goals, 13 assists).
Chelsea will look to put a poor end to 2024 behind them when they visit London rivals Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Enzo Maresca’s side ended the year by going three games without victory, losing their last two against Ipswich Town and Fulham. That was as many defeats as Chelsea suffered in 23 previous Premier League games combined, with those losses seeing them slip to fourth in the table.
Chelsea last suffered more Premier League defeats in a row in April/May 2023 during Frank Lampard’s second spell in charge (four). An upturn in form to close the 10-point gap on leaders Liverpool may not be immediately forthcoming.
Indeed, Chelsea have only won their opening league match in one of the last eight calendar years (D5 L2). That one win did come with a 1-0 victory over Fulham last year, though they have not triumphed in their first league game in consecutive years since 2005 and 2006.
A drab conclusion to December should not take away from the record-breaking exploits of Cole Palmer, however. No player was involved in more Premier League goals during 2024 than Palmer (26 goals, 13 assists), a record for a Chelsea player in a single year.
Further to that, only Erling Haaland (142) had more shots than the Chelsea star (139), and he ranked second to Bruno Fernandes (99) for chances created.
Palmer was also on target in the 2-1 loss to Fulham on Boxing Day, which ended a seven-game unbeaten run in top-flight London derbies for Chelsea (W5 D2). They’ve won both such games on the road this season, netting 3+ goals each time (3-0 vs West Ham, 4-3 vs Tottenham).
Palace clinched a morale-boosting victory with Sunday’s 2-1 triumph over struggling Southampton at Selhurst Park. Tyler Dibling’s opener silenced the home crowd, though Trevoh Chalobah levelled before Eberechi Eze’s second-half winner.
Eze scored in their 1-1 draw against Chelsea earlier this season, too. He will now look to become only the second Palace player to score home and away league goals against the Blues in a single campaign, after George Whitworth in 1924-25.
Chalobah’s leveller against Southampton won’t have come as much of a surprise for Oliver Glasner either. His side have scored 30% of their Premier League goals this season through defenders, the highest share in the division (6/20). That’s also the most goals they’ve scored via defenders in a top-flight campaign since 2017-18 (10).
Glasner’s side sit just five points clear of the relegation zone in 15th, though they have lost only two of their last 11 league outings after starting with five defeats in eight Premier League games this season.
Both defeats in their current run have been in home London derbies (2-0 vs Fulham, 5-1 vs Arsenal), however, and they’ve not started calendar years well in recent times. Palace have lost their opening league match in the past three years by an aggregate score of 12-2, with all three of those matches being London derbies.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Head-to-Head
Palace’s 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in September ended a 13-game run of consecutive Premier League defeats against Chelsea.
They’ve not avoided defeat in both league meetings since 1991-92 (D2), however, and Maresca’s side will fancy their chances this weekend considering their recent record at Selhurst Park.
Chelsea have won 12 of their 15 Premier League away games against Palace (D1 L2). That is the joint-biggest away win rate any side has against another in the competition (80% – min. 10 meetings).
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Prediction
Although Chelsea endured a difficult end to 2024, the Opta supercomputer sees Maresca’s side getting back to winning ways on Saturday. They triumphed in 48.2% of the 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Palace left Selhurst Park with all three points in 27.5% of the same data-led sims, while the draw was rated less likely at 24.3%.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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