Crystal Palace 2-3 Chelsea: The one that saw Jorginho return

Nobody does it better

 Who remembers when Crystal Palace lost seven games to start the season without scoring a goal - and then beat Cheslea. The last five minutes at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night brought back all those feels in the very worst ways. Going 3-1 up against a team that has scored the second fewest goals in the league should have felt a lot more relaxed.

But then it wouldn't be Chelsea if it were easy.


As the teamsheets dropped it was clear Antonio Rudiger is still on the naughty step and Andreas Christensen's blackmail material is for real. With N'Golo Kante still nursing and injury, Billy Gilmour was given a starting place while Jorginho was required to think about when he finally sort out his lockdown hair.

It took just six minutes for Olivier Giroud to open the scoring - in a moment that became surprisingly contentious. In the build-up, former Chelsea captain Gary Cahill pulled up injured. He was not fouled or in contact with anyone when his hamstring gave up on life. In that moment Willian breezed past him and within seconds the ball was in the back of the net.

More of this celebration please

There was no reason that Chelsea should have kicked the ball out of play - it wasn't a foul, it wasn't a head injury. It was unfortunate. And no doubt, everyone wishes Gaz a speedy recovery. I can't say I was unhappy to see Mamadou Sakho come on in his place.

Christian Pulisic continues to be the star of Project Restart. Like so many that came before them, Palace's backline couldn't contain the American. He doubled Chelsea's lead inside the half hour mark and it looked like the game was done and dusted. Oh how wrong that was.

Seven minutes after Pulisic game Chelsea a commanding lead, Wilfried Zaha fired from over 29 yards out. And gave Kepa's detractors another reason to flog him. While the shot was central, it traveled at 65mph meaning it hit the back of the net 1.4 seconds from it leaving his boot. The real problem with the goal wasn't Kepa it was that he was allowed the shot in the first place.

Zaha is by far and away Crystal Palace's best player and most attacking threat. Yet he was given an obscene amount of space to shoot. Not a single player tried to close him down in that moment. Technically he was Cesar Azpilicueta's man to deal with, but there were a lot of players who should have done more before he could even think about firing that in.

Even Captain America needs a cuddle

And just like that despite looking like Chelsea would ease into third with a routine win, they were fighting for their Champions League lives. As the second half began, Palace showed a lot more confidence and started to overrun the midfield.

Sensibly Frank Lampard brought on Ruben Loftus-Cheek for a bit of additional physicality and to give Barkley a bit of a breather. But taking away the presence and defensive nous of Giroud for Tammy Abraham was not ideal.

Abraham did score within minutes of coming on after some lovely work from Loftus-Cheek. But it was cancelled out by Christen Benteke 60 seconds later. Christian Benteke. Scored a goal. Been more than two years since scoring a goal at Selhurst Park. But there we have it.

Jorginho was handed his first appearance of the restart. His presence was like some insane soothing balm. The game had very much got away from Chelsea and they had lost their shape. But Jorginho brought immediate order to the system.

Despite all the good Jorginho vibes, Crystal Palace came within a fraction of an inch of scoring three goals in a Premier League match for the very first time this season.

Defender Joel Ward was denied by an outrageously good fingertip save from Kepa. Redeeming himself from Zaha's goal earlier. And then Kurt Zouma came from out of nowhere to time his sliding tackle on Benteke to sheer perfection. It's got to be his trademark move at this point. No one does those huge tackles any better. And for that save alone he deserves man of the match.

Next up - relegation threatened Norwich.

jb xx


RESULT: Crystal Palace 2-3 Chelsea

GOALS: Giroud 6, Pulisic 27, Zaha 34, Abraham 71, Benteke 72

CHELSEA XI: Kepa, James, Christensen, Zouma, Azpilicueta, Barkley (Loftus-Cheek 65), Gilmour (Jorginho 80), Mount, Willian, Pulisic, Giroud (Abraham 65)

STAR MAN: Kurt Zouma