Former Chelsea defender Marc Guehi has been tipped to be a huge success at Crystal Palace by The Athletic's Matt Woosnam.

What's the story?

The highly-rated 21-year-old impressed during a loan spell at Swansea City last season, prompting Palace to pay £18m for his services this summer.

Woosnam believes that the stocky centre-back is an exciting acquisition for the capital club, who is only going to get better in the future.

In an exclusive interview with This Is Futbol, he said: “Marc Guehi is an excellent signing. He’s young, has a lot of potential to improve, and has played at every single England youth level.

“He was also schooled at the Chelsea academy, and there are a lot of positives to be had there. He’s got a decent amount of experience in the Championship as well.”

He's a big upgrade

Palace are undergoing a major overhaul of the first team squad under new manager Patrick Vieira, and Guehi is set to be a key part of the new era in south London.

He arrives at Selhurst Park with an enviable reputation, having made 52 appearances for various age groups in England's youth setup, as well as being part of a Swansea team which reached the Championship play-off final last term.

The youngster is likely to feature alongside potential new acquisition Joachim Andersen at the heart of the Palace defence, and Guehi should offer a significant upgrade to the previous options available.

Scott Dann, Mamadou Sakho and Gary Cahill were all released following the expiry of their contracts last month, leaving a sizeable gap in the club's defence.

While talk of Cahill being offered a new deal rumbles on, Dann's time at Palace appears to be over while Sakho has joined Montpellier, but Guehi's arrival should make for a smooth transition.

As per WhoScored, the former Chelsea youngster recorded 1.6 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per league game in 2020/21, outperforming Dann's tallies of 0.4 and 1.2, and Sakho's 0.8 and 0.8, respectively.

Vieira still needs to bring in several fresh faces ahead of the upcoming campaign to ensure that he has adequate squad depth, but as Woosnam has said, it certainly seems as though he's made a solid start by signing Guehi.

In other news... Parish must swoop for “underrated” £6.3m-rated beast, he’s an upgrade on Milivojevic