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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea lead the Premier League table by nine points after beating Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park on Saturday thanks to a first-half Diego Costa header, with Arsenal and Liverpool not playing until Sunday and Monday respectively, and recorded their 11th consecutive victory. Re-live the action here.
- Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park
- Diego Costa header seals three points for the Blues
- Costa picks up fifth booking of the season and will miss Boxing Day clash with Bournemouth
- N'Golo Kante will also be suspended against Cherries
- Chelsea lead Arsenal and Liverpool by nine points
Follow live coverage on our blog below...
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It’s a big game for…
Cesc Fabregas: Speculation abounds about Fabregas’ future, despite him recently breaking into Antonio Conte’s starting line-up.
After scoring the decisive goal at Sunderland, he’ll hope he can further stake his claim for a regular place.
Best stat…
8: Crystal Palace have not won any of their last eight games against fellow London clubs. In fact, their last derby victory came at Stamford Bridge in August 2015.
Remember when…
John Terry scored an own goal to gift Tony Pulis’ Palace three points and effectively end Chelsea’s 2013/14 title challenge.
Player to watch…
Wilfried Zaha: The winger’s switch of international allegiances from England to Cote d’Ivoire at the end of last month has coincided with a upturn in form.
Alan Pardew has voiced his frustrations at the national team set-up for forgetting about Zaha, but that may have more to do with the possibility of him now travelling to the Africa Cup of Nations in January and missing a month of the domestic season.
Past three-meetings…
Chelsea 1 (Hazard) Crystal Palace 0
Premier League, May 2015
Chelsea 1 (Falcao) Crystal Palace 2 (Sako, Ward)
Premier League, August 2015
Crystal Palace 0 Chelsea 3 (Oscar, Willian, Costa)
Premier League, January 2016
Form guide…
Crystal Palace: LLWDL
Chelsea: WWWWW
Vital information…
Kick-off time: 12.30pm
TV: Live on Sky Sports, highlights on BBC1
We are off.
Chelsea kick-off to begin the London derby. Selhurst Park is laced with fog, but no excuses will be valid in such a vital fixture.
Game on.
3 MINS
It's a steady start both sides, with the visitors attempting to assert an early dominance by maintaining possession. Zaha looks full of energy today and could be Palace's key to breaking down the Chelsea defence. He's been in tremendous form of late and today is when the home fans will really need him to perform.
6 MINS
Costa finds a gap in the Palace defence and charges into the space, but the offside flag brings his attack to an early end. That should be a wake up call for home side - a player of such ability and striking excellence will exploit any weakness that they can find.
9 MINS
Chelsea are working well with the ball, but are yet to test Hennessey. Hazard leads a Chelsea attack by beating two helpless defenders,but his through ball is intercepted. The home side need to step it up a gear.
12 MINS
Konte fails to control the ball and lashes out by pulling the Palace man to the ground. The referee signals play on, but Benteke is unable create anything from the attack.
Possession stats are at 50/50 so far - with both sides still trying to find their feet. Not literally...
15 MINS
Conte's men relentlessly attack the Palace goal, but are failing to find the final product. Hazard flicks a clever ball through to find Alonso, but the Spaniard is unable to pick out a Chelsea man in the box. It's safe defending from Palace, who are rightfully taking no risks at the back.
18 MINS
Luiz stands over the Chelsea free-kick from just outside of the box. However, he hits it low and hard and it is deflected out of play for a corner. It looked like a complete miss-kick from the Belgian.
21 MINS
Cabaye finds Kelly down the right flank and he sends a cross into the danger zone. However, Puncheon is unable to convert from close range and sends the ball wide. That's certainly the best chance of the game for The Eagles, so far.
22 MINS
Yellow Card: Costa has received a booking for a silly challenge on Ledley. He attempts to tackle the ball from behind and completely hacks the Palace man down. This means he will miss the Boxing Day fixture.
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