Chelsea host Crystal Palace
The European champions Chelsea host Crystal Palace in their first Premier League game for the season. We advise you to stay with us and our best soccer predictions for today – let’s dive into this fixture.
Despite winning the Champions League last season, Chelsea won’t stop trying to improve their squad. They made just one summer signing so far – the goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli from Fulham, but they are currently working on signing a new world class striker to lead the attack. It’s being rumoured that Chelsea are currently trying to sign the Norwegian super star Erling Haaland which would be the deal of the year in England. It’s still not entirely clear if Borussia Dortmund will sell him, though.
At the same time the Blues are really close to complete the deal for Sevilla’s centre-back Jules Kounde. The 22-years old proved to be one the best defenders in La Liga and it was not a surprise that he was included in France’s squad for Euro 2020. Kounde is a very talented centre-back who could turn out to be a great investment for the future. Most likely his arrival will mean that Kurt Zouma will leave the club.
Chelsea managed to cut some deadwood as well. Players like Olivier Giroud, Victor Moses, Fikayo Tomori, Marko van Ginkel and Willy Caballero all left the club for good. At the same time the Scottish wonderkid Billy Gilmour was loaned to Norwich City to gain some valuable experience. He’s going to be an important player in the future, but right now he’s not really ready to be a key figure in Chelsea’s team.
Crystal Palace are starting a new era after the retirement of their manager Roy Hodgson. The legendary English coach was replaced by Arsenal’s former star Patrick Vieira who will debut in the Premier League as a manager. So far Vieira was managing teams in the Ligue 1, but now he will try to prove himself in the Prem as well. He’s young coach with a lot of ambition, so it’d be interesting to see how his arrival will impact Palace.
On the summer market Crystal Palace made some big deals in order to reinforce the squad. The club paid some serious fee to Chelsea for the young centre-back Marc Guehi while they also signed Olympique Marseille’s Joachim Andersen and Reading’s attacking midfielder Michael Olise. This should bring some fresh energy to the team. Palace managed to send away some players as well. Andros Townsend, Mamadou Sakho, Wayne Hennessey, Gary Cahill and Patrick van Aanholt all left the Selhurst Park for good.
In their last friendly game Crystal Palace showed some muscle and achieved a solid 3-1 win against Reading. So far the new manager Patrick Vieira is unbeaten in Palace’s summer friendlies – his record shows three wins and one draw.
That’s the best soccer predictions for today for the Premier League fixture between Chelsea and Crystal Palace at the Stamford Bridge. Is this going to be an easy one for the European kings? Or maybe Palace will surprise them?