All eyes will be on Oliver Glasner at Selhurst Park. We look ahead to Sunday’s Premier League clash with our Crystal Palace vs Chelsea prediction and preview.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea: The Key Stats
Chelsea are favourites to win, having claimed all three points in 40.5% of pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer. Only three teams have dropped more points from winning positions than Palace (39) since Oliver Glasner’s first Premier League match in charge. Chelsea have only failed to score in one of their 16 Premier League away games against Palace.Oliver Glasner has pulled no punches with his damning view on the Crystal Palace hierarchy, but he will hope his out-of-form side can respond when they host Chelsea on Sunday.
Although Brian Brobbey’s stunning winner and Yeremy Pino’s inventive opener were noteworthy in Palace’s 2-1 defeat away to Sunderland last time out, Glasner took centre stage both pre- and post-match at the Stadium of Light.
The Palace boss unexpectedly confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the season prior to the defeat, and that captain Marc Guéhi was leaving for Manchester City, before hitting out at the club’s hierarchy after a disappointing loss.
Glasner said his squad have been “abandoned completely” by the Palace hierarchy, frustrated by the timing of captain Guéhi’s permission to join City, as well as talisman Eberechi Eze leaving for Arsenal in the last transfer window.
Brennan Johnson’s arrival has been their only addition in January. “We have 12, 13 players from the squad available and we feel no support,” Glasner added after Palace’s winless streak extended to 10 matches across all competitions (D4 L6).
Somewhat surprisingly, Palace opted against immediately disposing of Glasner, representing a rather different approach to Chelsea and Manchester United, both of whom dismissed their coaches in early January following outbursts aimed at club bosses.
The Austrian is almost certainly under pressure, though. Only struggling Burnley (13) are on a longer winless run in the Premier League than Palace’s seven, with the Eagles drawing two and losing five of their last seven games. They last had a longer winless run between August and October 2024 (eight matches).
Glasner may have a point that a lack of squad depth has left them unable to compete for 90-plus minutes across the UEFA Conference League and domestically. Only three teams have dropped more points from winning positions than Palace’s 39 since Glasner’s first Premier League game – they have gone ahead twice in four games in 2026, failing to win either (D1 L1).
And matters could worsen further still, with Jean-Philippe Mateta reportedly attracting interest both domestically and in Europe. Six of Palace’s last seven Premier League goals at Selhurst Park have been scored by Mateta, and the other was an own goal from Brentford’s Nathan Collins.
The last Palace player other than Mateta to score on home soil in the league was Eddie Nketiah in September against Liverpool. Since then, 17 players other than the Frenchman have had a shot without scoring (83 shots, 18 on target, 8.5 xG).
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior was appointed after the aforementioned rant by his predecessor, Enzo Maresca. Concerns may remain from some supporters over their playing style, but Rosenior has won three of his four games in charge, all in different competitions.
His first Premier League game ended in a 2-0 victory over Brentford at Stamford Bridge, courtesy of João Pedro’s well-taken finish and a Cole Palmer penalty. There have only been four occasions when Chelsea players have scored in a manager’s first two Premier League games in charge – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink under Claudio Ranieri, Deco under Luiz Felipe Scolari, Diego Costa under Antonio Conte and Pedro under Maurizio Sarri.
Having ended their five-game winless run in the competition – and recorded a first clean sheet since mid-December – Chelsea sit sixth and just two points adrift of fourth-placed Liverpool. Rosenior’s next challenge is to win back-to-back league games, a feat Chelsea have not achieved since a three-match run in November.
Victory on Sunday would see Rosenior become the first Chelsea manager since Graham Potter in October 2022 to win their first two league matches. He would also be the first Englishman to win his opening two Premier League matches as a manager since Steven Gerrard’s back-to-back victories with Aston Villa in November 2021.
And this fixture may suit Rosenior’s new side. Only Arsenal (97) have won more points in Premier League London derbies than Chelsea (73) since the start of the 2022-23 season. By contrast, only West Ham (38) have registered fewer than Palace’s 45 in the same period.
But Rosenior may have to do so without Palmer, whose thigh issue will be assessed after he sat out of Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Pafos in the UEFA Champions League. Filip Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Roméo Lavia and Levi Colwill are confirmed absentees for Chelsea.
Glasner’s woes may at least be boosted by Ismaïla Sarr’s return from Senegal’s victorious Africa Cup of Nations campaign. Daniel Muñoz’s knee injury will also be assessed, and Nathaniel Clyne could return, but Daichi Kamada, Cheick Doucouré and Nketiah are out.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Head-to-Head
The pair shared a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge in the reverse meeting, with Eze’s free-kick controversially chalked off by the VAR in his last appearance for Palace.
That draw on MD1 this season left Palace winless in 16 Premier League games against Chelsea, drawing the last three after losing 13 in a row.
Chelsea have also only failed to score in one of their 16 league away matches against Palace (W12 D2 L2), doing so in a 1-0 defeat in March 2014.
Palace have kept just three clean sheets overall in their last 34 league games against Chelsea. With one earlier in the season, they last recorded consecutive league shutouts against the Blues in March 1983.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Prediction
The Opta supercomputer struggled to split these two across 10,000 pre-match simulations, but Chelsea are the narrow favourites.
Rosenior’s visitors came out on top in 40.5% of the data-led sims, with a Palace victory still rated at 33.8%. The draw accounted for 25.7% of scenarios.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea Predicted Lineups
Crystal Palace: Dean Henderson, Chris Richards, Maxence Lacroix, Jefferson Lerma, Justin Devenny, Tyrick Mitchell, Will Hughes, Adam Wharton, Brennan Johnson, Yéremy Pino, Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Head coach: Oliver Glasner
Chelsea: Robert Sánchez, Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoit Badiashile, Marc Cucurella, Moisés Caicedo, Andrey Santos, Enzo Fernández, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho, João Pedro.
Head coach: Liam Rosenior
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 15,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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