Updates from the 12.30pm GMT game at Stamford BridgeLampard sticking with superstitions to keep form goingGet in touch! Email scott.murray@theguardian.com 11.36am GMT N’Golo Kante is back for Chelsea! He’s one of three changes to the XI named for the absurd eight-goal thriller with Ajax. Also in: Emerson and young hero Reece James. Captain Cesar Azpilicueta earns a rest on the bench, while Jorginho and Marcos Alonso drop out altogether.Palace make just the one change to the team named for the 2-0 defeat to Leicester last Sunday. Andros Townsend is back from injury and replaces Jeffrey Schlupp. 11.32am GMT Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, James, Tomori, Zouma, Emerson, Kante, Kovacic, Willian, Mount, Pulisic, Abraham.Subs: Christensen, Caballero, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Batshuayi, Azpilicueta, Gilmour.Crystal Palace: Guaita, Ward, Tomkins, Cahill, van Aanholt, Townsend, Kouyate, Milivojevic, McArthur, Zaha, Ayew.Subs: Dann, Hennessey, Schlupp, Benteke, McCarthy, Kelly, Riedewald. 1.33am GMT Chelsea are a lot of fun right now. So far this season, Frankie’s Freewheelers have been involved in a 7-1, a 5-2, a 4-2, a 4-1, a 3-2, two 2-2s and of course that wonderfully absurd 4-4 against Ajax the other night. Last weekend, were it not for Ben Foster, they could easily have beaten Watford by ten goals; as it panned out, were it not for Kepa Arrizabalaga, they’d have ended up drawing 2-2. They can just as easily ship points at home as thrash someone away. They’re making Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle look like Helenio Herrera’s Inter. Yeah, they’re a whole world of fun.They’ve also won five Premier League matches in a row - a sequence that’s earned Lampard the manager-of-the-month award for October - so today’s visitors Crystal Palace will approach Stamford Bridge with some trepidation. The Eagles haven’t won in three, and they’ve only scored ten goals in their first 11 matches. In that sense, they’re going into the lion’s cage with neither whip nor chair. Continue readingreadfullarticle
