Pizy

People say we are over reliant on Costa but look at them. Zlatan has like all of their goals. Injury to the old man and they're in huge trouble. Not wishing an injury on anyone but...

Not sure I'd go that far. Nothing for us to worry about yet, anyways. The likes of Spurs, Arsenal, and City should be very concerned about their improving form and results. Don't think there's a chance they can finish above ourselves and Liverpool. Just looking at their next 2 fixtures and they have Sunderland and Boro both at home so that's 6 easy points. We (or our rivals) have a couple of poor results then it's time to worry about them.

Not Cesc?

Fabregas coming on changed the game. They had us pinned back for a good 10 minutes and we couldn't hold the ball for longer than a single pass. He came on and was excellent. Our goal was really not troubled for the entire 90 minutes. Very confident in Bats and whoever comes in for Kante next week.

Jesus Christ, hold the bloody ball! We get it and instantly give it away over and over and over again! By far our worst performance in months.

I think teams have just realized that if you attack our left side we really struggle. Cahill and Alonso are our Achilles heel.

Unbelievably frustrating half, that. Zero attacking rythm, no pattern to our play. Need to get Hazard more and more involved as he looks dangerous each time he gets it.

Still one of the PL's best players last season. Many here act like he's utter garbage. Just support him, ffs. We can always take him off if he plays poorly.

Palace are much more dangerous than West Brom or Sunderland attacking wise, but they're woeful defensively. Matic was a must. Hopefully we play similarly to Wednesday where we completely dominate possession in order to limit their chances. Every set piece and corner will be a huge worry due to Benteke. Alonso will have his hands full and we need Kante and Matic to focus at all times as to not allow Puncheon to run in behind them.

No respect for our reigning player of the year.

He keeps pulling out a string of decent results just as it looks bleak for him and it saves his job.

We'd win the title by 8-10 points if we signed Verratti assuming Hazard and Costa remain fit. If only he didn't already play for a super-rich club. It would be relatively easy to sign him then. PSG have no reason to sell unless he makes it clear he wants to leave like David Luiz did. id throw every cent of the Oscar money at him. He and Kante could lock down our midfield for years and years. We'd have probably the best midfield in the world after Madrid. Maybe better under Conte because we'd have more steel.

I think we kind of have to stick with him. Unlike sides like West Brom and Sunderland, Palace don't set out solely to frustrate the opposition by parking the bus and packing the midfield to negate everything. They'll actually play football. Can sense this will be a match where we counter attack the hell out of them and score a few. Avoid letting Benteke get himself 1 v 1 against Azpi or Cahill, and hope whoever is on our left wing (Hazard) helps Alonso out against Zaha. That could be a very, very dangerous matchup. Alonso is almost a statue defensively with zero pace going against one of the fastest, trickiest wingers in the league. Cant see us keeping a clean sheet here but I can't see them holding us to anything less than 2 goals. I'll go for a 1-3 Chelsea win.

Think we've shown that we can win without Hazard for a short period but I'd worry about us if anything happened to Diego. If Bats had been getting a bunch of game time to stay sharp I'd be confident even without Costa for a while, but he's getting absolutely zero meaningful minutes. Knock on wood nothing happens to him.

How the hell can our opinions be so different? Agree to disagree then. Whichever one of them starts on Saturday I don't think we are any worse off.

Yeah, other than his finishing I thought he was superb. Brilliant runs, great movement, dangerous in full flight. Really the typical Willian performance. The poor finishing is expected at this point. Really a toss up for me which one starts.

N'Golo Kante. Fuck me, what a player! He was immense. I think if Hazard played here instead of Pedro (who I thought was subpar today) we'd have scored 2-3 goals. We really missed his decisive cutting edge in the final third. We saw that without him almost all of the opposing defenders just mob Diego and contain him. Hazard gives them a whole other headache and they can't just commit everyone to Costa. Hopefully he's back for Saturday.

Dominant first half. Cesc was fantastic, Pedro and Willian both looked decent, Diego is working his ass off, and we're getting plenty of width from the wing backs. Really, the only way I can see Sunderland scoring is from a terrible mistake from us or from a corner. We've completely neutralized and contained them. Continue playing like that and we should win comfortably. Id bring Matic on towards the end if we're still up just to lock it down.

Completely forgot Borini and Januzaj were with Sunderland. Wonder if they'll pull out their lone great game of their season here?

Nice team. Fabregas has earned his chance to start, though I'm still concerned about him in a midfield 2. I suppose Conte feels we have enough energy and pace in the side with Costa, Willian, and Pedro ahead of him, and Kante beside him. Huge match for Fabregas. He can give Conte a serious selection headache with a big performance here.

Willian will be up for it. Maybe with Hazard out Conte will have us high pressing more since Willian is more capable doing it than Eden. Willian and Pedro should mean we'll be lightning on the break. Just hope Hazard is back for the weekend.

Honestly, we should be able to hand Sunderland quite easily without Hazard. If it's true he isn't going to play hopefully it's just a rest before the fixture pile up.

Don't bottle it, lads! Hopefully the team come out and blast them away 4-0 or something.

^ Yep, I can definitely read all that, mate!

Hmmm. Seems to be spreading like wildfire now. Looks like these journo's have been briefed by very knowledgable sources.