Overview
Oliver Glasner did not hesitate to attack Crystal Palace's leadership, but the Austrian strategist still hopes that his team, which is in a state of crisis, can create a positive response when hosting Chelsea.
Although Brian Brobbey scored a beautiful goal and Yeremy Pino opened the score with a creative move in the 1-2 defeat to Sunderland, the focus of the match revolved around Glasner himself. Before the match started, he unexpectedly confirmed that he would leave Palace at the end of the season, and revealed that captain Marc Guehi is preparing to move to Manchester City.
After the match, Glasner continued to shock when he declared that the team had been completely abandoned by the board of directors. He criticized the time of selling Guehi, as well as letting Eberechi Eze join Arsenal in the previous transfer window, causing a serious shortage of personnel.
Brennan Johnson is Palace's only signing in January, which made Glasner particularly disappointed. However, Palace's board of directors has not yet made a decision to fire him, contrary to how Chelsea and Manchester United handled coaches after similar criticisms earlier this year.
However, the pressure on Glasner is very high. Palace currently has a 7-match unbeaten streak in the Premier League (2 draws, 5 losses), only behind Burnley in terms of the longest number of unbeaten matches. Since he led the team, Palace is also one of the clubs that has dropped the most points from leading.
The problem became even more serious when Jean-Philippe Mateta almost became the only scorer at Selhurst Park. 6 of Palace's last 7 home goals were scored by the French striker, while the last player besides Mateta to score here was Eddie Nketiah from September last year.
In the opposite direction, Chelsea is showing positive signs under new coach Liam Rosenior. He has won 3 of his first 4 matches in all competitions, including a 2-0 victory over Brentford in his Premier League debut.
That victory helped Chelsea end their 5-match winning streak and rise to sixth place, only two points behind the top four. If he continues to win all 3 points this weekend, Rosenior will become the first Chelsea coach since 2022 to win his first 2 Premier League matches.
History also sided with the away team. Since the 2022-2023 season, only Arsenal has won more points in the London derby than Chelsea, while Palace belongs to the group of teams with the worst record in the capital.
However, Chelsea may be without Cole Palmer due to a thigh injury, alongside a series of other absences such as Romeo Lavia, Levi Colwill or Tosin Adarabioyo.
Palace welcomed good news with the return of Ismaila Sarr after AFCON, while Daniel Munoz and Nathaniel Clyne still need to assess their fitness. However, Doucoure, Kamada and Nketiah certainly cannot play.
With the future being questioned, the Chelsea confrontation could become the final turning point deciding Glasner's fate at Selhurst Park.
Head-to-head record
The two teams drew goallessly at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of this season, in which Eberechi Eze's free kick was once rejected by VAR in a controversial situation.
That result extended Palace's winningless streak against Chelsea in the Premier League to 16, including the last 3 draws after a period of 13 consecutive defeats.
In the same period, Chelsea almost always dominated when playing away at Selhurst Park, only conceding once in the last 16 trips in the tournament (12 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses). That was a 0-1 defeat in March 2014.
Score prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
The match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea takes place at 9:00 PM on January 25 (Vietnam time).
