Chelsea begin the season as one of the favourites to lift the Premier League title and start their season at home to a refreshed Crystal Palace side.
The hosts are the favourites at 7/25 with Grosvenor Sport while Palace are 11/1 and a draw is 9/2.
Thomas Tuchel will be looking to build on his side’s continental success and hope it translates on the domestic scene too as he looks to build on the Champions League and European Super Cup wins.
They may be without Romelu Lukaku but Tuchel’s side has plenty to offer in attack and has the likes of Mason Mount in midfield who can really frustrate a side like Palace who have had little to no time to prepare what is an extremely difficult match on paper for them.
The Eagles are in transition as Patrick Vieira replaces Roy Hodgson as head coach while 10 players were released from a squad which was the oldest squad on average.
Their average of departures was just over 29 years while their have an average age of 23 – fresh faces was desperately needed for the south London club but now the task is for Vieira to get them clicking quickly.
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Team stats
Chelsea have won 16 of their last 20 Premier League meetings with Crystal Palace including the last seven matches – they did lose the other four.
The Blues have lost their opening match in two of the last four Premier League seasons which is as many as they had in the previous 23 campaigns – winning 16 and drawing five too.
Palace have won two of their last three season openers in the Premier League, keeping a clean sheet in all three matches.
Player stats
Two of Crystal Palace’s three goals have come from Christian Benteke who has scored seven times in 12 appearances against the Blues. Last season’s goal at Selhurst Park was Crystal Palace only registered shot on target against Chelsea too.
The Belgian striker is 5/1 to score anytime.
American winger Christian Pulisic scored twice against Palace last season in their last meeting which ended 4-1 to the Blues.
(Image: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
H2H
This will be the 55th meeting between the two sides since they first met back in September 1924 – a 2-2 draw in the old Division Two.
The Eagles last beat their hosts in October 2017 at Selhurst Park in the league and last won at Stamford Bridge in earlier that year in April – Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke were on the scoresheet in a 2-1 win away.
Since then, Chelsea have won all seven matches with Palace scoring just five times to Chelsea’s 19.