Chelsea v Crystal Palace: Premier League betting preview, free tip & TV details

Football tips, best bets and predictions for Chelsea v Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 12.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Chelsea to win & under 3.5 goals
1pt 5-4 Betway, BoyleSports, Coral
Back this tip with Coral

Team news

Chelsea
Jorginho is suspended though N'Golo Kante is fit. Antonio Rudiger and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are out. Mason Mount and Ross Barkley are doubts.

Crystal Palace
Andros Townsend is available again. Gary Cahill is expected to be available after a blow to the head.

Match preview

Stamford Bridge hero Frank Lampard was always going to be given time by fans who adored him, but even the former England midfielder couldn’t have expected to have flown out of the traps this smoothly.

He has recorded five straight Premier League wins and seven successes in 11 overall, with the only losses coming against Manchester United and Liverpool - and top-flight management is supposed to be tough.

Throw in a hugely eventful start to their Champions League campaign culminating in Tuesday night’s extraordinary 4-4 draw with last season’s semi-finalists Ajax, and it’s no wonder Chelsea fans are loving every minute of Super Frank’s joyride.

He should make it six league wins in a row against Crystal Palace, a team who probably lack the firepower to halt the Blues’ progress.

The bookies are in no doubt with short odds about the hosts, but Palace can be dangerous on their travels. They have chalked up eight away league wins in 2019 and only Manchester City and Liverpool have accrued more.

While Chelsea have themselves won five out of six away fixtures, they have picked up only two home wins in five, against Brighton and Newcastle.

So while Chelsea have plenty in their favour, a better way to back them is to include under 3.5 goals to make it an odds-against wager.

That might seem questionable just days after Lampard’s lads were involved in an eight-goal European epic and given that their matches this season are yielding 3.8 goals per game.

But it’s not all about Chelsea and if we know anything about Palace it’s that they are exceptionally well-organised under Roy Hodgson. They love to stifle space in midfield and aren’t easily taken apart.

One-time Bridge stalwart Gary Cahill has helped strengthen Palace at the back and Tottenham are the only side to have taken them to the cleaners. Nine of their 11 matches have produced three or fewer goals.

Where Chelsea find goals easy to come by – they have 25 in their ten league games since that opening-round reverse at Manchester United – scoring has been much tougher for Palace.

Danger man Wilfried Zaha is a threat off his flank but he’s no secret any more and he hasn’t found the net this season.

Jordan Ayew has bagged four of Palace’s ten goals, which is the lowest haul in the top half of the division. Only seven of those ten have come from open play.

The fact they are ninth in the table highlights the good things they are doing at the other end of the pitch.

Chelsea did the double over the Eagles last season, have won eight of their last ten in all competitions and in nine-goal Tammy Abraham they have the type of on-song frontman Hodgson would dearly love to have in his ranks.