Chelsea v Palace

Stamford Bridge, Saturday 3.00pm

Patrick van Aanholt

Team news

Crystal Palace left-back Patrick van Aanholt is still sidelined with his ankle injury. Striker Fraizer Campbell (leg) and James McArthur (back) are out, while Mathieu Flamini (leg) is back training.

Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard will face a late fitness test on his calf injury, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (hip) is recovering well from his injury, Victor Moses (calf) is a doubt, while John Terry is available again.

Chelsea (from): Courtois, Begovic, Fabregas, Zouma, Alonso, Kante, Hazard, Loftus-Cheek, Moses, Pedro, Costa, Matic, Willian, Batshuayi, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Luiz, Eduardo, Aina, Ake.

Palace (from): Hennessey, Mandanda, Speroni, Ward, Tomkins, Sakho, Dann, Delaney, Schlupp, Kelly, Flamini, Ledley, Cabaye, Milivojevic, Puncheon, Townsend, Zaha, Benteke, Sako, Lee, Remy.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"From Christian’s point, it’s very frustrating for him because he hasn’t put the ball in the back of the net since Bournemouth.

"He’s had opportunities and they’ve come and gone, and hopefully they will arrive at the right time for us, which is in the next 10 games.

"If we are to stay up then we need to get Christian scoring again, and I would hope he could bag five or six goals in the next 10 games to try and help the problem we’re in."

Antonio Conte

"I remember the game very well at Crystal Palace. We deserved to win, but we suffered also. Crystal Palace have a lot of really good players. (Christian) Benteke is a top player, (Wilfired) Zaha, (Andros) Townsend. Another player I like a lot is (Yohan) Cabaye, (Jason) Puncheon.

"If you ask my why they stay in this (low) position, I don't know. For me it's very strange. To have a team with this many great players in this position, very strange. It can happen. Last season it happened to Chelsea, for example.

"But we have to pay great attention. They won their last three games, and they're sixth in the table over the last six games. So we have to pay attention, above all after the international break. We faced a lot of (injury) problems this week."

Chelsea - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
1st	28	22	3	3	69

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
17/12/2016	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Chelsea
03/01/2016	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 3	Chelsea
29/08/2015	League	Chelsea	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
03/05/2015	League	Chelsea	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
18/10/2014	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Chelsea

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 0-1 Chelsea

Saturday December 17 2016

Palace: Hennessey, Delaney, Ward, Dann, Kelly (Fryers, 84), Ledley, Puncheon (Townsend, 77), Cabaye (Campbell, 79), W Zaha, McArthur, Benteke

Subs not used: Husin, Mutch, Speroni, Lee

Bookings: Ward, Delaney

Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Moses (Ivanovic, 79), Matic, Alonso, Kante, Hazard, Willian (Fabregas, 64), D Costa (Batshuayi, 89)

Subs not used: Pedro, Chalobah, Begovic, Zouma

Goals: Costa (43)

Bookings: Kante, Costa, Fabregas