Chelsea Entertain Crystal Palace In Title Bid

Chelsea will be looking to further extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table with a victory at home to Crystal Palace this afternoon. The Blues are currently 13 points clear of second placed Manchester City with the same number of points separating them from third placed Arsenal. Jose Mourinho`s side will go further clear should they pick up all three points this afternoon. Manchester City play Tottenham later in the day with Arsenal facing off against Hull tomorrow. Losing against Palace would allow these sides to capitalise on their error and close the gap to 10 points.

Crystal Palace sit in 12th position in the top tier of English football, safe from relegation but unable to look as high as the top four or five. A victory would see the club usurp Everton whilst a defeat would see them fall behind in their aim for a top 10 position.

These two sides have met once already this season, this being in the reverse Premier League fixture at Selhurst Park back in October. It was a game that Chelsea managed to win, grabbing two goals to Palace`s one. The hosts were under the stewardship of former manager Neil Warnock before he was replaced with current boss Alan Pardew.

It took the Blues only six minutes to break the deadlock, this goal coming through Oscar. The match remained at 1-0 until six minutes after the restart when Cesc Fabregas doubled the visitors` advantage. Fraizer Campbell gave the Eagles a consolation goal in injury time.

Betvictor have the best price of 9/1 on the Stamford Bridge outfit winning by two goals to one once again. Whilst Oscar is available at 15/2 (Spreadex, Stan James) to score the first goal, 18/1 (paddy Power) says that Campbell will grab the last goal of the encounter. boylesports have 5/4 on both teams hitting the back of the net at some point this afternoon.

Mourinho`s men are the favourites to win today by any means, thereby doing the double over their London rivals. Coral have the best price of 4/11 on a Chelsea home victory. A draw is the next most likely outcome according to the bookmakers (47/10 - Betbright) whilst betfair have 11/1 on a Palace win.

Whilst Chelsea have not lost since New Year`s Day, there most recent home form isn`t so great. The champions-elect have picked up 11 points from their last five games at Stamford Bridge, dropping points against the likes of Burnley (1-1) and Southampton (1-1). The club only kept two clean sheets in this period. Consequentially, both 888sport and unibet have 17/16 on the visitors grabbing over 0.5 goals against Chelsea with 6/1 (Coral) the price on Pardew`s men hitting over 1.5 goals.

Eden Hazard has scored in both of Chelsea`s last two matches and can be backed at 13/10 (Betbright, betfair, Betvictor) to hit the back of the net at any time. Both his goals were deadlock breakers with Coral having 5/1 on him scoring the first goal.

Crystal Palace have lost both of their last two home games by two goals to nil. A correct score prediction of 2-0 to Chelsea will see you with returns maximised by the value of 6/1. The Blues can be backed at 21/20 (betfair) to win by any number of goals to nil.

Prior to their back-to-back defeats against West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, Palace beat Sunderland 4-1. Yannick Bolasie scored a hat-trick in this clash and is available at 100/1 (bet365, paddy Power, unibet) to score two or more against Chelsea.

Paddy Power have 20/1 on him being awarded the man of the match honour.

Go To bet365

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03/05/2015     © Frixo 2024