Chelsea v Crystal Palace: Werner key to fast-starting Blues

Lukaku, the missing piece in the jigsaw

Lots of people feel that it may be Chelsea rather than Liverpool or Manchester United, who give Manchester City a good run for their money this year. You can see why. They won the Champions League after, beating City no less, and this after Thomas Tuchel only arrived halfway through the season.

All the old stalwarts, including Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Mason Mount are still there, while the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner will be better off for having a season of this league under their belts.

It's far too soon to expect to see Romelu Lukaku in action here but he's a huge signing and a few of the things they lacked last year- a proven scorer, someone to hold the ball up, a powerful presence up front - will be provided by the bulky Belgian.

With Tammy Abraham and Michy Batshuayi out of favour, it would be no surprise if Tuchel plays without a recognised striker here.

What to make of Vieira's appointment?

There are two schools of thought regarding the appointment of Patrick Vieira. The first is that he's an inventive and progressive coach who wants to play attacking possession-based football and wishes to shake up a team that for too long have played pragmatic but dull football.

The second is that Roy Hodgson was very much the best man for the job till he called it a day and that Palace aren't the right side in terms of mentality, nor do they have the right players, for Vieira's game plan. Perhaps only Wilfried Zaha and (the injured) Eberechi Eze can play the sort of football Vieira wants to play.

I'm in the latter camp. It's too big a risk to bring in a manager with not that much experience or proven results to try and create a revolution at a club that's probably somewhat lucky to still be in the Premier League. But the proof will be in the pudding.

Chelsea short enough

This is one of those prices. At 1.282/7 on the Exchange, some may feel you're buying money. After all, this is the European champions packed with household names and coached by one of the best in the business.

Against a side with a new manager, few star players who can really make a difference and an awful record against the Blues. They've lost each of the last seven against them, including losing 4-1 at home and 4-0 away last season.

Curiously, Opta tell us Patrick Vieira never lost a game against Chelsea as a player in 10 appearances, winning six and drawing four - a record.

But then again, early-season games do funny things to people. It's hard to make a case for a draw at 6.411/2 and even harder to argue in favour of a Palace win at 15.014/1. We don't want to be backing a team at Chelsea's odds either, so this is a market best left alone.

Reasons for overs, reasons for unders

The Exchange odds show that 'unders' is the outsider at 2.111/10. That looks like a decent price at first glance when you consider that 57.9% of Chelsea's home games last season and 52.6% of their away fixtures stayed under three goals.

Then again, 57.9% of Palace's away games last season had over 2,5 goals, as did six of the last eight between these two.

As with the match-winner, if there are no decent options, we must ignore this market.

Chelsea up at the break, Werner on target

Over in the world of Bet Builders, I'm going to take a 4/6 punt that Chelsea will be leading at half-time.

Palace will find struggle to find their feet straight away, all things considered, and an away trip at a strong Chelsea side, who finished last season in style, maybe too tough a test for the Eagles.

Go with Chelsea to be leading at the break.

By his standards, Werner had a poor season last time out. He played plenty (2589 minutes) but only scored six goals. There were a fair few highlights reels focusing on his misses, rather than his goals.

However, his 12 assists paint a better picture of his all-around contribution to the team.

I think he'll have a far better season this time around and this could be one of his last chances to get a game through the middle before Lukaku takes over. Against a Palace defence that may not be so trustworthy, that 13/10 on Werner scoring looks decent enough.

The double comes to just over 3.259/4.