By Samuel A. January 4, 2025
Chelsea’s woes continue as they are now winless in their last four games, following their unconvincing performance against Crystal Palace, who claimed a late point in a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park. It was Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal in the 82nd minute that canceled Cole Palmer’s early goal, which was already looking like the blues was heading to victory. Mateta’s goal further compounded Chelsea’s festive slump, jeopardizing their audacious title hopes which the coach and players have always stylishly debunked, insisting that they just want to be better versions of themselves.
Ice-cold Cole Palmer slotted the ball past Dean Henderson to open the scoring in the 14th minute of the game, however, Jadon Sancho stole the show as he beat Chris Richards with a sublime skill, before finding Palmer with a cross into the area, who finished with composure.
The early exchanges belonged entirely to the visitors with Chelsea’s wingers enjoying large amounts of the ball as they troubled Tyrick Mitchell and Daniel Munoz. The first chance fell Chelsea’s way in a move that set the tone for proceedings when Pedro Neto whipped a ball into the area looking for Sancho who blazed his first-time volley over in the third minute.
Palace grew into the contest after Chelsea’s goal, mounting efforts of their own with Mateta seeing his chance glance wide after being set up by Munoz. But the first half belonged to Enzo Maresca’s side, who had opportunities with Nicolas Jackson firing wide before 18 year old Premier League debutant Josh Acheampong headed an effort wide. Palace then emerged from the halftime interval as the better of the two sides with Eberechi Eze spurning a huge opportunity just moments after the restart.
Palace continued to battle for the equaliser with Robert Sanchez drawn into making an impressive stop to keep out Richards.Chelsea felt they should have had a penalty at a point in the game, when Mitchell lunged in on Neto, but after a brief VAR check, the challenge was cleared.
Palace’s efforts were eventually rewarded through to claim a point that sees them move six points clear of the drop zone.
Chelsea, on the other hand, who denied the chance to leapfrog Nottingham Forest, stay in fourth place.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca after the game said: “Probably we did enough to win the game today. Between the first half and second half, I think we created chances enough to win the game.
But in football you need to be clinical otherwise the game is always open, especially in this stadium. Any transition, any corner boosts the energy for them. Unfortunately in the end we conceded but overall I think today we did enough to win the game”.
