Chelsea vs Crystal Palace: The One that was an April Fool

Looking back on those opening 4 mins like...

It goes without saying - but I’ll say it anyways - Saturday didn’t exactly go to plan for Chelsea. But a little perspective might need injected here. Chelsea losing on the same weekend second place Tottenham win is far from ideal in the title race. However, the weekend’s results that left Twitter in a little mini-meltdown see Chelsea still sit seven points clear at the top of the league in April.

Although a horrific cliché, it doesn’t make it less true - Chelsea were unlucky not to find an equaliser let alone a winner on Saturday. Taking nothing away from Crystal Palace of course. Not only were they able to capitalise on some uncharacteristic errors in Chelsea’s back line, but despite their repeated substitutes via injury, they maintained resilience and organisation across their back eight four.

Saturday's game was not for anyone who enjoys late drama. In fact Saturday's game was not for anyone who might have got into the ground late. All the scoring was done and dusted after just 11 minutes. At 20 minutes some misguided soul in the stand *cough* may have suggested that Chelsea need not worry as they still had 70 minutes to score 2 more goals. Loads of time. Similar words were uttered with 20 minutes left. Thankfully, my lofty ideas were outdone by a gentleman behind me who said, and I quote "we just have to win, that's it". The tactical nous from the stands should never be ignored.

Sure Mamadou Sakho came to Selhurst Park and Crystal Palace stopped bleeding goals. But Wayne Hennessey was frustratingly the man of the match on Saturday as Chelsea laid siege upon his goal. Chelsea fired in 24 shots, forcing the Welshman to make 10 saves. When the opposition goalkeeper is making saves in double digit figures, you haven’t really had a bad day at the office. Just a frustrating one.

Chelsea also had a number of shots that were just inches wide of the net or went skipping across Palace’s goalline. If someone had been able to just put a boot on any one of those, fans would be feeling a lot better heading into the mid-week matches.

It’s also easy to forget that a lot of the players who started on Saturday were still nursing injuries and maybe not 100% fit. Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois all had question marks heading into the weekend. Hazard was still making some lovely runs and set up Chelsea’s opening goal, you could tell he was nursing a bit of a muscle strain. While Costa may have just been missing the edge that would have seen one of his attempts hit the back of the net rather than skip over the crossbar.

As for the Victor Moses factor - Chelsea did not lose because he did not play. Pedro deputised well in that role. Few teams win or lose a game on the back of a single player. The fetishisation of an average player has already jumped the shark and everyone needs to just chill out a bit. Chelsea's performance, as a whole, was more impressive than some of the games that did include Moses this season - it was a shame that Chelsea were not able to capitalise on some of the chances that they created.

Signs that Antonio Conte was frustrated that his plans A and B had not been able to find a second goal? He was willing to bring on Michy Batshuayi for more than a 60 second cameo to ensure his sub record stays in tact. <Conte has made 100% of his PL subs - the only manager who fancies making all of his subs all of the time>. Unfortunately, Batshuayi failed to have much impact. He was handed 23 minutes (+ stoppage time). Basically a fifth of his Premier League minutes were played on Saturday. He had 5 touches and not a single shot in that time.*

Saturday also provided a glimpse into the potential future of captain John Terry - head cheerleader. If you close your eyes and picture it, you can see him shake those pom poms.** As the minutes ticked down and the frustration grew, Terry took it upon himself to jog down to Gate 15 to rally the troops. The linesman was less than impressed that Terry was on the ’wrong’ side of the technical area for a warm-up. Unsurprisingly, Terry ignored the linesman’s initial warnings to head back as he rallying cries were effective and amusing. Eventually the captain headed back to the bench. It also made the result worthwhile. Almost.
 
So chins up you lot. This was Chelsea's first defeat at Stamford Bridge since September. As long as there's another 6 month gap between defeats - I *think* we might just be ok.

jb xx

*am personally a massive fan of Batshuayi and would love for it to work out a Chelsea for him - but that might not get him 20 more minutes.

*not a euphemism you cheeky little sods