Following on from a handful of mid-season friendlies on Friday, we had a few more over the weekend.
Alas, not much is known about the behind-closed-doors kickabouts involving Chelsea and Nottingham Forest.
Crystal Palace’s defeat to Bristol City was available to watch, however.
CHELSEA 0-2 Portsmouth
Hoping for clues as to the availability of Joao Pedro (£7.7m), Cole Palmer (£9.7m) and others? You’re flat out of luck, as the specifics surrounding Chelsea’s friendly with Portsmouth were scant to say the least.
All we know is the score and the fact that some first-teamers featured – but little more than that:
Involved from Chelsea POV: some injured players rehabbing their way back, younger players with a few first-teamers, and tactical work. Next competitive game: Bournemouth on October 10
— Kieran Gill (@kierangill_DM) October 3, 2026
Xabi Alonso is fast becoming notorious for his non-updates in his pre-match pressers, so we’re not expecting much clarification later in the week.
We’ll probably be relying on local and national media for snippets of information, then. Names such as the usually reliable Si Phillips, who suggests – at this early stage – that Pedro and Moises Caicedo (£5.3m) remain doubtful for Gameweek 6 but that Palmer and Marco Palestra (£5.3m) should feature.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 2-0 Swansea City
- Goals: Delap, McAtee
Again, there’s little known about Forest’s friendly against Swansea.
Liam Delap (£5.6m) and James McAtee (£5.5m) were on target, with Nikola Milenkovic (£5.4m) – absent in Gameweeks 4 and 5 – back from injury.
#nffc played Swansea City today in a behind closed doors friendly, winning 2-0. Goals from James McAtee & Liam Delap. Nikola Milenković appeared for 45 minutes as he steps up his return from a hamstring injury, and is set to be available for match at Crystal Palace on Oct 11
— John Percy (@JPercyTelegraph) October 3, 2026
Ten Forest players are currently on international duty.
CRYSTAL PALACE 0-2 Bristol City
- Line-up: Benítez, Mingueza, Lerma, Disasi, Chilwell, Mitchell (Okoli 66), Hughes, Wharton (Doucouré 67), McNeil, Guessand (Sealey 83), Nketiah (Nascimento 83).
Palace were much more charitable with how public their own mid-season friendly was. In fact, they threw the doors of Selhurst Park open to watching fans for Saturday’s clash with Bristol City.
The Eagles had 11 senior players absent on international duty, so there were just two survivors from the Gameweek 5 starting XI: Walter Benitez (£4.5m) and Adam Wharton (£5.4m)
There was still no Jean–Philippe Mateta (£6.3m) or Dean Henderson (£4.9m), who had been aiming to return from injury after the break. Axel Disasi (£4.5m), suspended in competitive domestic matches for another two Gameweeks, featured at centre-back.
Palace may have kept a clean sheet in Gameweek 5 but defending hasn’t been a strong suit. They’re bottom for xGC this season, and have shipped 11 goals along the way. Here, they conceded to two set plays, one from a corner and the other a direct free-kick. Benitez had to stand up well to superbly stop another dead-ball strike from a long throw.
Attacking play from the wing-backs has been a feature under Pierre Sage, and so it was again on Saturday.
Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) ventured forward to create two first-half chances for Eddie Nketiah (£5.5m), both sent off target. Mitchell himself sent a rising shot over after that.
On the other flank, Oscar Mingueza (£4.4m) created a spurned headed sitter for the misfiring Nketiah and was again denied an assist when his free-kick flicked off Jefferson Lerma (£4.8m) and was somehow shouldered over by the visitors’ ‘keeper.
Ben Chilwell (£4.5m), who switched to left wing-back in the second half after starting off at centre-back, also had a chance to score from inside the six-yard box but couldn’t sort his feet out.
