Graham Potter promised Chelsea are doing what they can to get to the bottom of their injury issues.
Chelsea lost a third successive game on Thursday as they went down 2-1 to Fulham in a west London derby.
Compounding their issues at Craven Cottage, where debutant Joao Felix was sent off, midfielder Denis Zakaria suffered a quad injury.
It means Zakaria joins Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic, Edouard Mendy, Armando Broja, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N'Golo Kante, Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana on the sidelines.
Ahead of Sunday's clash with Crystal Palace, Potter – who has seen his side lose seven of their last 10 matches – knows Chelsea must find a solution.
"We're looking all the time, going over how it's happening," said Potter, who replaced Thomas Tuchel in September.
"Sometimes when you come in through the season it's difficult to know how it's happened. It's a bit of bad luck and also learning for us all how we can improve.
"The nature [of the injuries], it's not even a pattern, it's different problems. It's tricky.
"It's not like we’ve been over-training or anything like that. We certainly need to get to the bottom of it though."
Joao Felix's three-match suspension, meanwhile, has dealt another blow.
"Of course, disappointing because he came here to play, he's on loan to play," Potter said.
"You saw his quality when he was on the pitch and to lose him for the three games is a real blow for us. Nothing we can do now, we've just got to deal with it."
Chelsea are rooted in 10th place in the Premier League, and Palace would move level on points with the Blues should they win.
Potter has never won a home game against Palace across his managerial career, drawing one and losing three of four previous such games in charge of Swansea City and Brighton and Hove Albion, though Chelsea did beat the Eagles 2-1 at Selhurst Park under his stewardship earlier this season.
Chelsea have won their last 10 league games against Palace but have lost two of their last three top-flight matches at Stamford Bridge, and Potter knows his team need to get back to their best.
"We have to recover from the disappointment of the [Fulham] game, assess all the players and then we have to try to be positive, take a home game on, another London derby against a team with dangerous players, so we have to be good ourselves," he said.
Potter, meanwhile, confirmed there is no chance that Pulisic, who is set to be out until March due to a knee injury, will leave the club in January.
"No chance," he said. "There's never been any consideration about that anyway but he's a couple of months out.
"He's disappointed, optimistic he can come back quicker than the two months, so it's at that stage where it's fingers crossed for his rehab."
Brentford 3-1 Southampton: Bees begin life after Toney with comfortable win
Brentford began life without Ivan Toney with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Southampton.
Bryan Mbeumo’s brace and a Yoane Wissa goal proved to be the difference between the two sides and condemned the Saints to their third straight loss since promotion back to the Premier League.
With departed striker Toney watching in the stands after his move to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, the hosts proved too strong for Russell Martin’s men. They created the superior chances and capitalised on an error-strewn performance from Southampton’s backline.
Mbeumo opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before doubling the lead halfway through the second period and Wissa then got on the scoresheet moments later to continue Brentford’s strong start to the campaign. Yukinari Sugawara bagged a consolation in injury time for the Saints.
Brentford sit in fifth place ahead of the first international break, while Southampton are second-bottom of the league table with zero points.
Data debrief: Wissa continues to prove effective at home
Wissa now has five goals and two assists in his last seven matches at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Brentford have recorded consecutive home league wins for the first time since last November, and the first time in their opening home games since August 2018.
Brentford 3-1 Southampton: Bees begin life without Toney with comfortable win
Brentford began life without Ivan Toney with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Southampton.
Bryan Mbeumo’s brace and a Yoane Wissa goal proved to be the difference between the two sides and condemned the Saints to their third straight loss since promotion back to the Premier League.
With departed striker Toney watching in the stands after his move to Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, the hosts proved too strong for Russell Martin’s men. They created the superior chances and capitalised on an error-strewn performance from Southampton’s backline.
Mbeumo opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before doubling the lead halfway through the second period and Wissa then got on the scoresheet moments later to continue Brentford’s strong start to the campaign. Yukinari Sugawara bagged a consolation in injury time for the Saints.
Brentford sit in fifth place ahead of the first international break, while Southampton are second-bottom of the league table with zero points.
Data debrief: Wissa continues to prove effective at home
Wissa now has five goals and two assists in his last seven matches at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Brentford have recorded consecutive home league wins for the first time since last November, and the first time in their opening home games since August 2018.
Glasner was 'never in doubt' Guehi would stay at Palace
Marc Guehi will be staying at Crystal Palace, with Oliver Glasner having never been in doubt that would be the case.
Guehi, who impressed for England at Euro 2024, has been the subject of multiple offers from Newcastle United.
However, on Friday, just ahead of the transfer window closing, Palace boss Glasner confirmed the defender would be staying at Selhurst Park.
And the Palace boss insists he never held any fears Guehi would join his now former central-defensive partner Joachim Andersen in leaving the club.
"I can confirm [he will stay]," Glasner said ahead of Sunday's clash with Guehi's former club Chelsea.
"But I was never in doubt. Congratulations to our owners because they didn't give in.
"Thank you to Marc, he was always open with me. All the rumours didn't influence his performances.
"He always told me that he's not pushing to leave Crystal Palace and that is always the most important thing for me."
Palace have lost both of their Premier League games this season, while Chelsea go into Sunday's match at Stamford Bridge on the back of a 6-2 thrashing of Wolves last week.
However, the Blues lost 2-1 to Servette in the Europa Conference League qualifiers on Thursday, albeit they still progressed on aggregate.
Despite the defeat, Enzo Maresca is not concerned that Chelsea will be hampered by playing in Europe.
He said: "It is a competition where we are going to try and do our best in.
"I think tonight, once again, the team shows in the way we started that the team was there. Then the game, we concede; they had some chances and we lost a little bit of confidence.
"It's one more competition. We have Conference League, Premier League, FA Cup, the EFL Cup - they are all competitions where we are going to try and do our best and then we will see where we arrive."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Chelsea - Cole Palmer
Since the start of last season, Palmer has both scored and assisted a goal in more different Premier League games than any other player (six).
Crystal Palace - Eberechi Eze
Coming into this weekend's games, Eze has been involved in more shots than any other player in the Premier League this season (16 – 12 shots, four chances created) but is yet to register a goal or assist.
MATCH PREDICTION: CHELSEA WIN
Chelsea’s 6-2 win at Wolves last time out was the 21st time they have scored 6+ goals in a single Premier League game, with only Manchester City doing so more often in the competition's history (22). However, the last two times the Blues have netted 6+, they’ve lost their next league match (2-4 v Arsenal in April 2022 and 0-5 v Arsenal in April 2024).
Having only lost three of their 13 Premier League games under Glasner last season (W7 D3), Palace have lost both such matches in 2024-25. Only in 2017-18 have the Eagles ever lost their first three matches of a top-flight campaign (first seven).
Palace have lost 80% of their 30 Premier League meetings with Chelsea (W4 D2 L24), the highest loss rate of any side to face another at least 30 times in the competition. Each of their four wins against the Blues have come under a different manager (Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce, Roy Hodgson).
Chelsea have won each of their last 13 Premier League games against Palace. Only Man City (a current run of 14 against Bournemouth) have ever had a longer winning streak against an opponent in English Football League history.
The Blues lost 2-0 against Man City in their opening league game of the season at Stamford Bridge – they have not lost their first two at home in a single campaign since 1978-79.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Chelsea - 56.4%
Crystal Palace - 21.8%
Draw - 21.7%
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