Chelsea have to wait a little longer than usual for their game this week as it’s been pushed back until Monday.
That gives us a good chance to watch some other matches this weekend and see how our rivals get on. One person who will be keeping their eye across the weekend’s action on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday is Paul Merson, and he gave Sportskeeda his prediction for how the results would go:
“Chelsea are a really young side – the average age of the starting XI that beat Aston Villa in the cup was 23! This is what you’re going to get from a bunch of young guns – inconsistency is guaranteed. They got absolutely slaughtered by Liverpool and Wolves but a week later, they played arguably their best football under Mauricio Pochettino in the FA Cup win against Villa,” Merson wrote in his predictions column.
“In the league, you need to be consistent over 38 games, which is why Chelsea have struggled this season. However, in the domestic cups, you just need to be a better team on the day, so I think Chelsea will go far in the FA Cup. They are already in the Carabao Cup final, indicating that they are very much a cup team, like Arsenal was in 1993 when I was part of the squad.
“Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise are set to miss out for Palace, so I see nothing but a Chelsea win.
“Prediction: Crystal Palace 0-3 Chelsea.”
We’re very cautious about predicting a big win like that for a team which has let us down consistently this season, but we can see Merson’s logic. We’re full of confidence and Palace are in a rut and missing some of their best players.
We wouldn’t predict such an easy ride, but even the most negative Chelsea fan would have to say we’re favourites against Roy Hodgson’s struggling Eagles.
