Pizy

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.

Don't think it's about whether we turn it down but rather if Oscar would agree to go there. I think not! He's far too good and far too young to essentially retire.

I knew Sunderland have been woeful and were in/near the relegation zone but I didn't realize until just now that they are literally rock bottom of the league. I haven't been paying any attention to that end of the table. How embarrassing would it be if we lost this one? All of those "Chelsea are only top because they don't play any midweek games" people will feel validated. Unlike West Brom, Sunderland don't have the personnel or the coaching to remain solid defensively for an entire match so I'm not as worried for this one. Biggest concerns are fatigue after yesterday (Diego looked shattered by the end of that match) the yellow card situation with many of our most important players, and David Luiz's knee. He was bullied by Rondon yesterday several times and I wonder if that's because he wasn't fully fit. Even if they do score against us I can't see them stopping us from scoring at least 2. If we approach this with the same focus and desire as the last 9 matches we should win easily. If we just look past them and think we can just show up and go through the motions to pick up 3 points we can get embarrassed. Also, I wonder if this may be the game Conte finally rotates a player or two. Maybe Cesc in for Matic or Kante and Willian for Pedro. Just to get fresh legs in the team and to throw Sunderland off. They'll be preparing for and expecting the same exact side we've been playing so surprising them with Fabregas may work a charm.

Our passing accuracy has been absolutely atrocious. Fuck me...

What a hugely annoying side they are. Park the bus, waste time, knock it to the target man.

The gulf in class and sheer talent between these two XI's is massive. I know they're in good form too, but if we're serious about this title challenge this is a match at home we should expect nothing less than 3 points. They have very few scoring threats and you know exactly how they'll look to score- using their height at set pieces, counter attacks, and knocking it up to the big man Rondon. I trust Conte has prepared us all week for those things and our players don't underestimate West Brom because they probably won't roll over like many small teams do.

I'm not really worried about them when it comes to scoring. I'm more hoping they don't frustrate the fuck out of our attacking players and stifle us to a boring scoreless draw. My wish is that Conte has us on the attack from the opening whistle and we dominate possession. Don't even allow them to think they can get anything from this match.

Maybe he did his homework and watched how we struggle against pressing. He'll probably pack the midfield and test it out from the start. See if he can rattle our boys. If we get an early goal he'll have them back to playing defensively, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a go from the beginning.

Luiz isn't confirmed out. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't play.