Today’s top betting pick comes from the last game of the Premier League’s 24th round as Crystal Palace takes on Chelsea on a Monday night London derby. It’s always an interesting affair whenever these two teams meet, and this one promises to be pretty even given how shaky and inconsistent Chelsea have been all season, while Palace have been hit with injuries to some of their main players.
Chelsea With a Tough Road Ahead
Maurico Pochettino would hope that his team has turned the corner after their impressive 1:3 win at Aston Villa in the FA Cup. However, we’ve said that on a number of times this year and yet the Blues often slump to heavy defeats after a random impressive win.
The schedule gets really difficult for the Blues, and this game at Selhurst Park on Monday, February 12, looks to be the most winnable out of their next three matches. Next Saturday, Chelsea will play away at Manchester City, so it’s quite unlikely they will get anything from the Emirates. Then comes the League Cup final against Liverpool, which might bring them some silverware. In the Premier League, their next games are away at Brentford, at home versus Newcastle, away at Arsenal, at home against Burnely, and then another home game against Manchester United.
Examining Chelsea’s Struggles
It’s funny how we talk about Chelsea as a low-level team that’s uncapable of sizing up against any of the Big Guns in the EPL, but that’s based on how seriously they have underperformed this year. Given the fact that the new club owners have spent over a billion dollars on transfers, the fact that they are 11th in the league standings is just mind-boggling.
To me personally, the club is being run by people who don’t know much about football. If you look at Inter in Italy, Marotta has done miracles with almost zero budget bringing in incredible players on free transfers, while Chelsea have been doing the exact opposite. They’ve been spending insane amounts on flops and payers I’ve barely heard of.
Palace Missing Their Creative Forces
Crystal Palace will be missing two of their most influential attacking players as Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze are out injured against Chelsea. This will certainly weaken them in a major way given how limited their resources are. Nevertheless, Hodgson does have some capable players in his 4-3-3 system. Ayew, Mateta and Schulpp will be leading the attack.
Crystal Palace v Chelsea Prediction
This game should bring at least three goals. In terms of the winner, I do expect the Blues to come out on top as the schedule will get really difficult in the upcoming weeks, so that’s one of the games they must win in order to at least get in the upper half of the Premier League table.
