Crystal Palace vs Chelsea LIVE: Stream, TV channel, team news as Havertz and Mount START for Blues – latest updates

CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN

Mason Mount is once again on the lips of everyone who speaks the language of football and this time, it’s for all the right reasons.

The England international put in another tremendous performance for the Blues in their midweek Champions League first leg against Porto.

A performance accompanied by the first CL goal of his career and the first of Chelsea’s two goals which helped them to secure the win.

Mount has received quite a lot of criticism online from fans for his lack of goal contributions to the team, despite the 22-year-old registering eight goals and six assist for the Blues this season.

And Gary Lineker felt the need to update social media with his thoughts on all the spectators who have bad-mouthed Mount in the past.

The former Barcelona striker said: “You still see it, don’t you, on social media? Now, social media, as we know, is full of people that know everything about football, but the Mount misunderstanding is weird.”

Thomas Tuchel has realised Mount’s importance to the team hence why he is often one of the first names on the team sheet.

Can the attacking midfielder continue to silence his critics with another good performance similar to Wednesday night?

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

Crystal Palace have arrived masked up and ready to steal the three points.

CHELSEA DUGOUT

1 Kepa, 3 Alonso, 33 Emerson, 24 James, 7 Kante, 22 Ziyech, 9 Abraham, 18 Giroud, 11 Werner

CHELSEA XI

With possibly one eye on their Champions League second leg quarter-final tie on Tuesday, the Chelsea gaffer has decided to make three changes for this evenings encounter against Crystal Palace.

Kurt Zouma replaces Andreas Christensen in the defence.

Callum Hudson-Odoi slots into the midfield instead of Reece James and Christian Pulisic gets the nod ahead of Timo Werner who has struggled this season.

16 Mendy, 28 Azpilicueta, 15 Zouma, 2 Rudiger, 20 Hudson-Odoi, 5 Jorginho, 17 Kovacic, 21 Chilwell, 10 Pulisic, 29 Havertz, 19 Mount

RAK EM UP

Crystal Palace under-18 midfielder, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi has made their first-team squad for the first time.

Congratulations to the young lad and hopefully he will continue to rack up the appearances.

CRYSTAL PALACE DUGOUT

1 Butland, 6 Dann, 34 Kelly, 27 Mitchell, 22 McCarthy, 15 Schlupp, 10 Townsend, Rak-Sakyi, 14 Mateta

CRYSTAL PALACE XI

Roy Hodgson has decided to stick with exactly the same team who managed to scramble out of Goodison Park with a point against Everton last weekend.

Cahill and Kouyate are the centre-back pairing with Van Aanholt and Joel Ward either side of them.

Jordan Ayew and Eze are left to occupy the flanks leaving the skipper Milivojevic and Riedwald to mop up in the middle.

And up front is the dynamic duo of Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha.

31 Guaita, 2 Ward, 24 Cahill, 8 Kouyate, 3 Van Aanholt, 9 Ayew, 4 Milivojevic, 44 Riedewald, 25 Eze, 11 Zaha, 20 Benteke

THE STARTING LINE-UPS ARE IN!

CHELSEA SQUAD NEWS

No injury worries for Thomas Tuchel which means that the Chelsea gaffer will have a selection headache for this evening’s encounter with everyone fit.

N’Golo Kante could reclaim his place in the starting line-up having come off the bench in the 2-0 victory over Porto.

However, Thiago Silva’s return to action last weekend was cut short when he picked up a second yellow after committing a reckless challenge on Matheus Pereira resulting in suspension for this match.

CRYSTAL PALACE TEAM UPDATE

Roy Hodgson had some bitter sweet injury updates to address because the likes of Tyrick Mitchell and James McCarthy are fit and available for selection.

But others who have been on the treatment table for some time, remain absentee’s for this evening’s clash against the Blues.

The Palace boss stated in his pre-match press conference that: “The only person missing from the ones that have been available recently is Michy [Batshuayi] because he’s not allowed to play in this game [Chelsea are his parent club].

“James McCarthy has certainly returned. Tyrick Mitchell has been back with us now for a couple of weeks and is fully fit and available to play.

“The ones we don’t have are the two centre-backs who’ve been out now for a long period of time, James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho.

“James McArthur is still out unfortunately at the moment. Connor Wickham is recovering for a slight knock but will be back soon and Nathan Ferguson [is recovering].”

Hodgson also mentioned that Nathaniel Clyne should be returning to action next week as a result of some good progress being made in his recovery period.

PLEASE PARK HERE

London – A place full of many fans who believe that the football club they support is the best team in the city.

This evening, all eyes are on the home of Crystal Palace, Selhurst Park in South London and the boys in blue from South West London are hoping to cause some distress to the locals.

GETTING RID OF ROY

Roy Hodgson has delivered a more than satisfactory feeling around the Crystal Palace fan base this season on a results basis.

The Eagles are well clear of the drop zone and if they were to construct a run of wins together for the remainder of the campaign, Palace have an outside chance of qualifying for European football.

However, rumours are circulating that the desire from the owners of the club is to take Crystal Palace to the next level and Hodgson is not included in their plans.

According to the Italian outlet, Il Messaggero, the Roma boss Paulo Fonseca could be heading for the exit door due to his inconsistency in Serie A and the writer mentioned that ‘Crystal Palace have just called him’ in hope that he could be a potential suitor should Hodgson leave.

Despite Roma still being in contention to lift the Europa League trophy, Il Messaggero also reported that ‘Fonseca doesn’t necessarily have the certainty of staying’ even if they win it.

Hodgson’s contract at Selhurst Park is coming to an end in the summer which is also adding to speculation that he may depart sooner rather than later.

But should his side pull off a shock victory over Chelsea this evening, the owners of the club may be forced into re-thinking their plans.

CURRENT STANDINGS

Crystal Palace currently sit in 13th and three points won’t enhance their chart positioning by much but a win could still see them climb above Wolves closing the gap on Arsenal to only one point.

As for Chelsea, they’ll be hoping that they can get back to winning ways in the Premier League because a victory for them would lift the Blues back into the top four above West Ham.

TOP 5

Here are five of the Blues most favourable goals against Crystal Palace over the years.

For the Chelsea fans, enjoy because there is some sensational strikes in this video clip.

LAST TIME OUT

The Blues were absolutely dominant when Crystal Palace made the trip to Stamford Bridge in October.

Chelsea just seemed to flip the switch in the second half sending Roy Hodgson’s side back across London with their tails between their legs.

It was noticeable that Crystal Palace had a game plan to sit deep and try and catch the home-side on the counter.

But despite Frank Lampard’s men controlling a large portion of the possession in the first 45, the only memorable effort came through Timo Werner which was comfortably saved by Vicente Guaita.

However, Chelsea finally made a breakthrough only five minutes into the second half.

When Ben Chilwell on his Premier League debut for the Blues, fired a mistimed Mamadou Sakho clearance on the half-volley past Guaita in the Palace goal.

Kurt Zouma almost doubled Chelsea’s lead moments later when his header from a corner just trickled wide.

And the defender was given a second bite at the cherry when Chilwell crossed in the ball from a similar position but this time Zouma made amends of the situation when his looped header crash into the back of the net.

Lamaprd’s men continued to press a worn out Palace side and the third came when Tyrone Mitchell made a clumsy challenge on Tammy Abraham in the box resulting in a penalty.

Jorginho stepped up and coolly dispatched the ball to the bottom right in his unorthodox style.

If there was any reason beyond doubt on the result, Chelsea officially put the game to bed when they were awarded another penalty four minutes later given away by Sakho this time.

It was a day to forget for the defender because Jorginho stepped up and made him pay for another costly mistake in the game.

CURRENT FORM

The Eagles last six Premier League fixtures have been pretty steady.  Three draws and securing a couple victories in that run is what is expected of Palace.

But the one loss which stands out on their record is that 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Spurs which didn’t go down well with the fans.

As for Chelsea, life was smooth under the new boss Thomas Tuchel because they went on a 10-game unbeaten run in England’s top division.

However, that streak came to an abrupt halt when the Baggies, bagged five goals against them last Saturday.

GOOD AFTERNOON

Hello SunSport family and welcome to another live coverage of some Premier League action.

I hope everyone is staying safe and staying sanitised.

Ladies and gentleman we are almost free!

This is the first weekend in step two on the road map out of lockdown and there’s no better way to celebrate other than tuning in for a London derby.

Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace Chelsea to Selhurst Park in the midday kick-off and something tells me that we are in for a good game today.

Despite all the rumours circulating on Roy Hodgson’s future at the Eagles they are coming into this game with a bit of confidence.

In their last four Premier League fixtures, Palace have held both Manchester United and Everton to a draw and have beaten West Brom in the process.

But in the other match, Hodgson’s side got thumped 4-1 by Spurs which was a performance that summed up their inconsistency this season.

As for the Blues, Thomas Tuchel swallowed his first defeat as Chelsea head coach losing 5-2 to relegation battlers, West Brom last weekend.

Yes you read that right, they conceded FIVE.

However, the Blues bounced back immediately with a comfortable 2-0 triumph over the Portuguese giants Porto in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

So with the West Brom blip well and truly behind Chelsea and Crystal Palace playing with no pressure, it sets this one up to be a fascinating encounter.

Fancy keeping up to date with how this match plays out?

Then stick around and you’ll receive all the latest updates including; team news, pre-match quotes and of course, the game itself.