Chelsea Women will look to bounce back from Sunday's heavy European defeat to Barcelona when they welcome Crystal Palace Women to Kingsmeadow for Wednesday's league clash.
The Blues are sitting top of the Women's Super League table, while the Eagles are languishing at the foot of the standings.
Match preview
Chelsea's hopes of completing a quadruple were doubt a serious blow in Sunday's 4-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Women's Champions League semi-final first leg at Estadi Johan Cruyff.
Sonia Bompastor's side looked set to lose by a narrow scoreline when Sandy Baltimore halved Barcelona's lead in the 74th minute following goals from Ewa Pajor and Claudia Pina.
However, Irene Pardes went on to add a third, before Pina scored her second and Barcelona's fourth to leave Chelsea needing a miracle in the second leg to keep their hopes alive of winning their first UWCL trophy.
The Blues will do their best to mount an unlikely comeback in Sunday's return fixture at Stamford Bridge, but first, they will turn their focus to their bid to win a sixth consecutive WSL title.
Having collected 48 points from 18 matches, Chelsea are currently three points clear of second-placed Arsenal with four games left to play against Palace, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.
Wednesday's fixture represents Chelsea's game in hand over Arsenal, and they will certainly be confident about extending their lead to six points, having already beaten Palace on separate occasions this season, easing to a 7-0 win in September's reverse fixture before recording a narrow 1-0 home victory in March's Women's FA Cup quarter-final.
Crystal Palace are staring at an immediate return to the second tier after mustering just nine points from 18 league matches this season.
Palace hope a change a manager would help boost their survival chances after they decided at the end of February to replace promotion-winning boss Laura Kaminski with Leif Smerud.
The Norwegian has struggled to spark an upturn in fortunes, having overseen three defeats in his four WSL matches (W1).
After losing to Liverpool in his first WSL game, Smerud oversaw a precious 3-1 victory over relegation rivals Aston Villa, before going on to lose 3-0 against Everton and 4-0 to Arsenal in their final two outings before the international break.
With seven points separating them from safety, Palace know that they will have to produce something special in their final four games against Chelsea, West Ham United, Leicester City and Manchester City if they are to preserve their top-flight status.
The Eagles will also be aware that they will have their work cut out to take something from Wednesday's fixture, especially as they have lost five of their previous six away league games.
- L
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
Team News
Chelsea are unable to call upon Femke Liefting, Zecira Musovic, Sophie Ingle, Kadiesha Buchanan, Lauren James and Sam Kerr.
Defender Nathalie Bjorn will have to be assessed after she was forced off in the latter stages of Sunday's defeat to Barcelona.
Bompastor is set to rotate her squad ahead of Sunday's second leg, which could see starting opportunities given to Ashley Lawrence, Naomi Girma, Niamh Charles, Oriane Jean-Francois, Sjoeke Nusken, Maika Hamano, Guro Reiten and Catarina Macario.
Palace midfielder Aimee Everett remains sidelined with a foot injury, while Clarissa Larisey is a doubt after she sat out the defeat to Arsenal before the international break.
Izzy Atkinson is also a doubt for the match, while Chelsea loanees Aniek Nouwen and Lexi Potter are ineligible to face their parent club.
Fliss Gibbons announced on Thursday that she will retire from professional football at the end of the season, but it is unclear how much she will play in the final four games after being absent from the last three matchday squads.
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Hampton; Lawrence, Girma, Bright, Charles; Jean-Francois, Nusken; Beever-Jones, Hamano, Reiten; Macario
Crystal Palace Women possible starting lineup:
Yanez; Nolan, Veje, Swaby, Woodham; Weerden, Cato, Arthur, Larkin; Sharpe, Stengel
We say: Chelsea Women 3-0 Crystal Palace Women
With the focus on Sunday's clash with Barcelona, Bompastor will surely make changes for the midweek outing against Palace, but even if there are a number of alterations, we still believe that the Blues have enough depth of quality in their squad to claim a comfortable victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
