Chelsea vs. Crystal Palace, Premier League: Preview; How to watch

Taking a break from Silly Season, it's time for a bit of football, again.  And then there won't be any (club) football for two weeks after this (thanks, FIFA!), so we should cherish these upcoming 90 minutes like we cherish every single morsel of possibly meaningful and hopeful (but ultimately unrewarding) rumors about Paul Pogba.

Having sort of righted the ship with that eventful 3-2 win last weekend — the 4 points total on the season matching last season's points total gained from the corresponding fixtures — we welcome the side that confirmed our title win last season and helped kill it the year before.  What will they do this time?  Probably nothing, as it's still too early, but it would not be too great to fail to post a win in Mourinho's 200th Premier League match ever.  This will also be Jose's 100th Premier League match at Stamford Bridge.  Of the 99 previous ones, he's still only lost just the one.

It would also be nice to not get a man sent off, for a change.

Date / Time: Saturday, August 29, 2015, 15:00 BST; 10am EDT; 7:30pm IST

Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6

Referee: Craig Pawson — England's newest FIFA-qual'd referee, this will be Pawson's second ever Chelsea match.  His first?  Last season's 2-1 win, away at Crystal Palace!

Forecast: Cloudy and cooler, with a chance of rain.  England!

On TV: none (UK); USA (USA); Star Sports 4 / HD 4 (India); elsewhere

Online: BBC 5 Live (UK; radio); NBC Sports Live Extra (USA); Star Sports (India)

Chelsea team news: John Terry will serve the one-match ban for his red card against Salomon Rondon last weekend.  Oscar and Victor Moses continue to show up on injury lists with unspecified knocks.  Victor Moses did take part in an adidas promotional event earlier this week, for what it's worth.  Purposefully vague injury reports are a pain.

In Terry's absence, Kurt Zouma should get another start, while once again we will be on the lookout for any changes to our regular fullbacks now that Baba Rahman has had a week to settle and get up to speed.  Following his impressive debut, Pedro should be a locked-on starter on the right.  Palace have looked weak in defense (almost as weak as Chelsea!), so there's every chance for Pedro, Hazard, Diego Costa (who finally opened his goalscoring account last weekend) and the other attackers to get some goals and assists in this one.  Young Kenedy, now fully and officially a Chelsea player could maybe see some bench time.

Crystal Palace team news: Palace are missing several players, though none pose a big problem for Pardew's team selections at the moment.  Mile Jedinak is out thanks to the hamstring strain he picked up midweek, but Conor Wickham and Yannick Bolasie are expected to be available, having missed time due to injury and a death in the family, respectively.  Frazier Campbell, Marouane Chamakh, and Kwesi Appiah remain out indefinitely.  Chelsea's own Patrick Bamford, who played in the midweek League Cup tie (though not very well), is ineligible thanks to the terms of his loan.

Palace have notched up three wins from four in all competitions so far this season, conceding in each but also scoring 11 goals total thanks to the addition of a creative midfield to go with the speed down the wings that we saw last season.  For the full low-down on Palace, be sure to check out Rob's opposition preview.

Previously: Since Palace have returned to the Premier League, we have won three of the four meetings between the two sides.  This will be our 46th meeting all-time, Chelsea winning 22, Palace winning 8 to this point.  The last time we lost at the Bridge to the Eagles from across town was in 1982, in the old second division.