Paul Merson has now made his score prediction ahead of Chelsea against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Chelsea host Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League, which is their final match before September’s international break.
The Blues recorded a league double over London rivals Palace last season, including a 3-1 away victory back in February. Conor Gallagher scored a brace in that match, but he left the club this summer to join Spanish giants Atletico Madrid.
Cesar Azpilicueta has already been helping Gallagher settle at Atletico, where he’ll hopefully prove to be a big success.
Paul Merson predicts Chelsea vs Crystal Palace
Paul Merson has predicted that Chelsea will sign off for the two-week international break with a routine win over Palace at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
Merson told Sportskeeda: “This is a good game for Chelsea to be playing just before the international break. I just hope they don’t become a flat-track bully. At the end of last season, they beat the likes of Bournemouth, Tottenham and West Ham. The Blues started the new campaign with a loss to City, but beat Wolves 6-2 in the second game. It is going to be the matches against the big teams that define Chelsea’s season.
“They definitely have enough in them to beat Crystal Palace. But consistency is key, it can’t be like in the recent past, where they have a 9/10 display and then follow it up with 4/10 in the following week. Having said that, I expect Chelsea to beat smaller teams.
“With all due respect to Crystal Palace, I think this is going to be a routine victory for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace.”
Chelsea a mixed bag so far under Enzo Maresca
It’s understandable that Chelsea have been a little inconsistent so far under Enzo Maresca as the players adapt to the style of the new head coach.
They’ve had conflicting results and performances so far in their two Premier League matches, plus they only just scraped past Servette in their play-off tie to reach the Conference League group stages.
- Servette 2-1 Chelsea (29 August)
- Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-6 Chelsea (25 August)
- Chelsea 2-0 Servette (22 August)
- Chelsea 0-2 Manchester City (18 August)
If we’re looking for one big improvement in the Blues’ meeting with Palace, it’s to be more defensively sound. They’ve got the attacking firepower to score goals freely if things click into gear, but the backline looks a little suspect so far this term.
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