Good evening, it’s been a very pleasant evening here in the capital, but it could be rather an unpleasant evening for one of these managers if they don’t get a result. It is fair to say that, despite his many qualities, Mauricio Pochettino has yet to either crack the code at Chelsea or really get the fans onside. As for Roy Hodgson, many Palace fans seem to feel that it might be time to move on from the veteran manager.
Chelsea have lost their last two, Palace have lost three of their last five. Palace, in 15th, must be getting nervous because even if you assume that Sheffield United and Burnley are going down, Everton, Forest and Luton all look to have some combo of fight or talent. Wouldn’t be astonishing to see Palace go down, or get drawn into the dogfight at least.
Palace have scored just 26 in their 23 games and their attacking threat is further blunted by the absence of Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, both out with hamstrings. Chelsea, it is fair to say, would happily play these every week: if they take all three points tonight it will be 13 league matches in a row, which would be Chelsea’s most dominant record against any club.
Furthermore, Crystal Palace would extend and unwelcome club record of 13 defeats in a row against one club.
No draw in 26 meetings since a Premier League 0-0 at Stamford Bridge in March 1995.
Sounds to me like Poch is getting a few excuses in…. “We had (many) players that arrived new at the beginning of the season. You need to build a team. Always I talk about the team, it’s not about if you have 20 or 19-year-olds. We need to be consistent like a team. At the moment we have maybe not so good (balance), because we would be in another position.”