Crystal Palace fought through a determined game this evening against Chelsea, with the in-form Blues matched by a Palace side driven to resolve for an unfortunate start to the evening's ceaseless action.
Summary
- Roy Hodgson names Scott Dann and Cheikhou Kouyate in place of Mamadou Sakho and Jairo Riedewald
- Chelsea take the lead as injury prevents Gary Cahill from denying Willian’s pass to Olivier Giroud, who turns home from close range
- Chelsea make it two through Christian Pulisic
- Wilfried Zaha fires Palace’s opener into the net emphatically, launching home from 30 yards
- Palace attack Chelsea with intent and see-out the first-half in the ascendance
- Half-time: Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
- The second-half starts brightly, but settles down as the game reaches 60 minutes
- Tammy Abraham nets Chelsea’s third to apparently secure victory
- But Palace are resolute, and pull the score to 2-3 through Christian Benteke
- Palace thwack the post in the dying seconds, but are denied by another twist of fate
- Full-time: Crystal Palace 2-3 Chelsea
The third Chelsea manager in Hodgson’s south London tenure, Frank Lampard fielded an experienced lineup with just one forced change in it: Billy Gilmour taking the place of the injured N’Golo Kante.