Crystal Palace Vs Chelsea (PL) Sat 14 Oct 2017 KO 15:00 GMT

[doctorblue]

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Courtois

Dave   Luiz   Cahill

Zappacosta   Bakayoko   Fabregas   Alonso

Musonda Jr             Eden

 Batshuayi

 

No need to pile bodies into the middle of the park as Palace offer little to no threat. If anything they may try to park the bus to nick a draw or hit us on the counter. Play creative players such as Fabregas to break them down. Dave, Luiz, Cahil, Baka, Fab, Alonso, Musonda all played very little or no international football so should be fresh and ready to go. 

 

Chelsea 4 - 0 Palace

Interestingly Mousanda has been on Instagram complaining about his lack of first team minutes...be interesting to see what Conte's response will be to that plea...

[TrueBlueBIH]

Palace always steps it up against us no matter what, this won't be a walk in the park they will make it very difficult for us. We must win this to keep the pressure on the top.

Defeated them in the last three at Selhurst Park, send them down mighty blues.

COYB

[TomCFC85]

International Break over and I've been successfully awoken from cryosleep.
COME ON YOU BLUES! 
 

[Scott Harris]

2 hours ago, TrueBlueBIH said:

Palace always steps it up against us no matter what, this won't be a walk in the park they will make it very difficult for us. We must win this to keep the pressure on the top.

Defeated them in the last three at Selhurst Park, send them down mighty blues.

COYB

Yep, a lot expect an easy win but i think it will be the opposite. I don't like predicting Premier League results anymore because you never know with this league. Crystal Palace have been awful, but a lot of teams have been awful over the years and have found a win.

[coco]

33 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Yep, a lot expect an easy win but i think it will be the opposite. I don't like predicting Premier League results anymore because you never know with this league. Crystal Palace have been awful, but a lot of teams have been awful over the years and have found a win.

You were starting to get me worried then for a bit.

 

Then i remembered they have not scored a goal, or won one measly point, and they have a new manager who is anything but 'new'.

It really is hard to get worried about this game.

[strider6004]

I wouldn't play Fabregas from the start, sure bring him on at 70mins if we are struggling yet as our bogey team and Roy starting to find his feet it is set up for an upset. Don't encourage them. 

[old git]

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Yep, a lot expect an easy win but i think it will be the opposite. I don't like predicting Premier League results anymore because you never know with this league. Crystal Palace have been awful, but a lot of teams have been awful over the years and have found a win.

The Palace midfield is easily the strongest part of the team. Townsend, Cabaye, Milijovejic, Loftus -Cheek and Puncheon, irrespective of the results, have all looked lively. Loftus -Cheek won't play this week, of course. By far the weakest is their defence. Dann and Delaney are no where near good enough as central defenders and Ward and Van Aarnholt have been awful for some time. Schlupp is a player without confidence now. Their attack has been toothless with Benteke doing nothing. At least, now he's injured, Palace will get some movement up front with Sako. There's a 25% chance that Zaha will start, according to one website!

[DonAntonio]

You know we have been without major injuries for years, down to a good medical staff, now 2 of these recent injuries happened on international duty but I'm wondering is conte doing something different that is taking a toll on the players? That's 2 hamstrings in 2 weeks for 2 key players....

[Cyborg7]

40 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

You know we have been without major injuries for years, down to a good medical staff, now 2 of these recent injuries happened on international duty but I'm wondering is conte doing something different that is taking a toll on the players? That's 2 hamstrings in 2 weeks for 2 key players....

I reckon mostly that Conte didn't do rotate enough

[strider6004]

58 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

You know we have been without major injuries for years, down to a good medical staff, now 2 of these recent injuries happened on international duty but I'm wondering is conte doing something different that is taking a toll on the players? That's 2 hamstrings in 2 weeks for 2 key players....

Just think it is the frequency of the matches, consider Mane, Pogba, Fellaini all recently crocked too.

[wallosh]

Tibo
Dave Christensen Cahill 
Moses Baka SSB Alonso 
Pedro Bats Hazard
 
Or a more attacking option 
 
Tibo
Dave SSB Rudiger 
Moses Baka Cesc Alonso 
Pedro Bats Hazard
 
Think I prefer the first team with Cesc and Willian to come on later...

Your first team will play the Roma game while the second one will be for Palace.

[wallosh]

Interestingly Mousanda has been on Instagram complaining about his lack of first team minutes...be interesting to see what Conte's response will be to that plea...

You know he won't start any other game under Conte with that attitude. Even Costa will be very keen to see how Conte manages this situation.

[erskblue]

Hopefully a good win with a good performance. To bounce back after the Man City defeat.

[Richard P]

On 11/10/2017 at 08:08, DonAntonio said:

You know we have been without major injuries for years, down to a good medical staff, now 2 of these recent injuries happened on international duty but I'm wondering is conte doing something different that is taking a toll on the players? That's 2 hamstrings in 2 weeks for 2 key players....

I think it's more how they train with their countries and the pre match warm up.

[Scott Harris]

On 11/10/2017 at 08:08, DonAntonio said:

You know we have been without major injuries for years, down to a good medical staff, now 2 of these recent injuries happened on international duty but I'm wondering is conte doing something different that is taking a toll on the players? That's 2 hamstrings in 2 weeks for 2 key players....

I don't think that it's anything other than being unlucky. Hamstring injuries can happen at anytime.

[btpark]

While I don't appreciate Mousanda's attitude, I would like to see him play more often, maybe a second half substitution for Pedro (hazard depending on how well it's going) would work rather nicely there

[Zeta]

I'd say put up or shut up to Musonda and let him start, see what he can actually do. Can't be much worse than Willian in recent weeks anyway.

 

[DonAntonio]

All sorts of distractions going on, we need to get in our flow and go on a run until January, see where we are.

 Utd's wheels will fall off they haven't had a hard game yet we have had Tottenham, Arsenal and city, and I think city will lack consistency as they always do, there is no reason we can't be top in January.

Morata should be back soon, hazard is back to his best sooner that I thought, hopefully deinkwater can fill in for kante and we can win games.

I don't think conte has worked out how we want to play yet, I'm sure he will have given it a lot of thought over the break, 3-4-3 has been found out I think it has its limitations in big games, I think he needs to tweak the 3-5-2 to get out some more atletico type performances. 

 

[icecoolguy22]

Think they will give us a tough game, not seeing Morata and Kante on the field will give them lots of confidence. This is the kind of game the squad players need to step up and earn  the starting spots. Let's hope we get an early goal and kill off their confidence, the longer they are in the game the more dangerous it is for us, the international  break usually takes toll on the top 6 teams.

[acidicleo]

'Kante is a big loss'

Crystal Palace v Chelsea (15:00 BST)

Chelsea

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte: "As you know very well we have three injured players. Alvaro Morata, I hope to have him back very soon. For the next game.

"Danny Drinkwater is progressing well but not ready yet. We must have patience with him.

"N'Golo Kante, we are going to do a scan next week to check his situation and if he is improving. It is a hamstring problem. A big loss for us. You know the importance of him in our team. We don't have a similar player with the same characteristics. Now we have Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas. We have to find different solutions."

 

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte: "I did an interview two weeks ago and the translation was wrong. All I said was that one day in the future I would like to go back to Italy. But you know my position. I have two years contract with Chelsea and am happy to work for this club and with my players. I like to have this great feeling with our fans.

"My family stay here with me, not in Italy. My daughter goes to school here. It is important to write the truth.

"Every coach, when they start, they work with the club and hope they will stay for a long time and build something important. At the same time, I always say our job is difficult and is strange."

Edited October 13, 2017 by acidicleo

[TomCFC85]

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

I'd say put up or shut up to Musonda and let him start, see what he can actually do. Can't be much worse than Willian in recent weeks anyway.

 

Disagree pal, it would send a message that the club rewards public tantrums.
If Musonda really did have a problem, he should have kept it to himself or told Conte/staff at the most. 

[TomCFC85]

Just now, acidicleo said:

'Kante is a big loss'

Crystal Palace v Chelsea (15:00 BST)

Chelsea

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte: "As you know very well we have three injured players. Alvaro Morata, I hope to have him back very soon. For the next game.

"Danny Drinkwater is progressing well but not ready yet. We must have patience with him.

"N'Golo Kante, we are going to do a scan next week to check his situation and if he is improving. It is a hamstring problem. A big loss for us. You know the importance of him in our team. We don't have a similar player with the same characteristics. Now we have Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas. We have to find different solutions."

Sounds to me like Conte doesn't trust Cesc to play in a two man midfield for a full 90. 

[acidicleo]

Just now, TomCFC85 said:

Sounds to me like Conte doesn't trust Cesc to play in a two man midfield for a full 90. 

and i think he is right in that judgement...but that shud be okay against palace imo..

[axman2526]

Can always put luiz back in to midfield. Christensen is doing a good job in his position as it is so frees up luiz to play further forward.

[enigma]

palace have no ruben (obviously) or benteke, so there attacking options are limited. however, they will have zaha back. meanwhile we have kante and morata missing. i would hope we can beat palace with what we have available, i mean if we can't beat an under firing palace with a lack of offensive options without kante and morata, i think we may as well say goodbye to challenging for the title.