Two Reasons Why Chelsea Must Beat Crystal Palace
Chelsea returns to action this weekend in the English Premier League as they travel to South London to face Crystal Palace in a London derby.
Both teams will be eager to have their players back on the pitch after the international break. Chelsea will look to continue its impressive form to the start of the season which have seen us win six and drawn one of our seven game so far this season while Crystal Palace will want to get going again after the 2-0 loss to Hull City before the international break.
The loss to this team in the corresponding fixture last season which all but ended Chelsea’s title hope will still be fresh on the players’ mind. Captain John Terry scored an own goal last season to gift the Eagles an unexpected lead and they’d go on to win the game.
There will be a lot at stake in this game and both side will like to take the maximum point at the end of the day. This is a local derby and as usual Selhurst park is a very difficult place to go but Jose Mourinho know that it will be three points or nothing in this game if Chelsea have to maintain their impressive record so far this season.
- Keeping the gap
Chelsea must beat Crystal Palace to keep the five point gap between them and closest rival Manchester City. City plays Tottenham Hotspur in the early Saturday kick-off in a match most book markers tip Manchester City to win. Chelsea will therefore, need to beat Neil Warnock side to keep that five point lead or even extend it depending on what happens at the Etihad.
Again Chelsea’s next league fixture will be against Manchester United (a seemingly tougher opposition) hence, a win at Selhurst park preserves our five point lead going into the United game.
Chelsea have started brightly this season opening a five point gap between them and Manchester City who are considered as the title favourite. The team should capitalise on every opportunity to extend the gap between them and other title contenders as this will be very vital especially during the run-in to the season.
We are not trying to recreate the Arsenal’s 03/04 invincible but there is noting wrong if we can continue to preserve our unbeaten run as long as we can. And the only way to do that is to continue winning game. Every game is winnable and should be given that winning sense. We need to beat Crystal Palace to continue the unbeaten runs.
As earlier said we are not trying to create another invincible team as it would be a tough task to do. The competition is stiffer this days than it was back in 03/04, there are more matches to play, injuries are common and virtually no team come and lay back to be beaten. But we can win each game at a time and the Palace game should be one which we must win least to get our own pound of flesh off Palace after their win left the club missing the title chance.