Crystal Palace could be boosted by unleashing Matheus Franca against Chelsea this evening, as Roy Hodgson hunts for a much-needed three points at Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace welcome London rivals Chelsea to Selhurst Park this evening in the Premier League, as Roy Hodgson faces a difficult challenge to decide his best XI to face the Blues amid a significant injury crisis.
Before the 4-1 defeat to Brighton last time out, things seemed to be on a relatively positive path for the manager, as Michael Olise had returned from his hamstring injury and was hitting top form to revitalise the Eagles at a critical time.
Just 11 minutes into his cameo against the Seagulls, the Frenchman was hauled off due to a recurrence of his hamstring woes, taking his recovery back to square one and leaving Hodgson low on resources once more.
Crystal Palace team news vs Chelsea
As well as Olise, six other stars will be absent for Chelsea’s visit to Selhurst Park as Cheick Doucoure, Rob Holding, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi, Joel Ward and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi join the 22-year-old on the sidelines.
Speaking ahead of the fixture, the manager issued a plea for the supporters to sympathise for his squad’s situation amid the injury crisis.
“We are in a very weakened situation, and we could do with their assistance and sympathy, because there will be players playing on Monday night that have not played that many games in the Palace first team.”
Palace must find some positivity in a dark spell that the manager has dubbed the “toughest period” of his career, which they could find by adjusting the attack to cover the loss of creativity that Olise provided.
