Chelsea narrowly defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 after a wonderful strike from Conor Gallagher in the 90th minute after coming on as a substitute.
He scored his first Chelsea goal against the club where he was on loan at last season. He was also voted Palace’s player of the year for his performances during that time. The muted celebrations were understandable given the circumstances, but inside you could see how happy he would have been to finally get off the mark for Chelsea (The club he has been at since the age of eight).
It was far from a vintage performance from the blues but a win and three points were most important from this game. Selhurst Park is notoriously known as a tough away ground to play in despite Chelsea’s good record there in recent seasons.
Chelsea seemed to line up at the start of the game in a 4-2-2-2 formation. Marc Cucurella was ruled out through illness so Ben Chilwell started on the left side . Reece James was on the right and Wesley Fofana partnered Thiago Silva at centre back. Mateo Kovacic was with Jorginho at the base of midfield with Sterling and Mount behind Havertz and Aubameyang upfront. The formation was flexible and was adapted later on as Chelsea went in search of a winner.
Conor Gallagher played in a more advanced role when he came on and it was from this position that he scored the winning goal.
Crystal Palace took the lead inside 7 minutes as Odsonne Edouard got on the end of a cross from Jordan Ayew. This was totally against the run of play as Chelsea had dominated the game up to this point. The cross could have been closed down earlier and Chilwell did stand off Ayew who put a good ball into the box.
There was then an incident that could have turned the outcome of the game. There were a couple of factors in the possible red card for Silva who handled the ball to stop Jordan Ayew from heading towards goal. Whether he was completely through on goal is open to debate as he wasn’t completely central and was far away from goal and slightly at an angle.
It could though still be a red and Graham Potter rated it as a 50/50 decision when asked after the match.
“ I thought it was touch and go. The fact he was quite far from the goal saved him and it could've gone the other way.
"It's a close one, I can understand Patrick's [Vieira] frustration. It's a 50-50 one."
Silva then turned provider as his cushioned header from a Reece James long ball found Aubameyang who spun and finished well for his first Chelsea goal. It is this kind of chance that the manager and fans will be happy to see taken after striker issues in the recent past. It is just a start though and he will have to add consistency and more goals.
Thiago Silva had the highest rating on a few apps and websites. His stats were as follows :
116/123 passes completed (94% accuracy) - most passes completed and most accurate passer
1 chance created
1 assist
15/19 accurate long balls
1 tackle won
5 clearances
1 interception
3/5 duels won
9 ball recoveries
Reece James again had a very good game. He came up against Wilfried Zaha who was kept relatively quiet . He actually switched wings as James was able to deal with him quite effectively.
These were his stats from the game :
58/63 passes completed (92% pass accuracy)
2 chances created
11 passes into final 3rd
9 ball recoveries
1 clearance
1 interception
5/8 duels won
0 fouls committed
There was a bit of messaging on Instagram after the game with Reece James posting a pic of him and Zaha with the 🔓 icon. This prompted a response from Zaha which was later deleted .
Despite dominating possession (64%), they still had some difficulty creating clear chances. There were 13 shots but only 3 were on target with 2 of these being the goals. The expected goals figure reflected the score line with it being 1.12 to 0.44 in Chelsea's favour.
They will have to improve when they play AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday in what will be a crucial game in their quest to qualify from the group for the knockout stages.
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