The Palace Defeat!!
Crystal Palace had got the first victory of the season at Selhurst Park against Chelsea on Saturday. Crystal Palace had beaten Chelsea with a margin of 2-1 and it could be the beginning of their comeback story this season. Chelsea had three key players missing this clash. Morata, Kante and Drinkwater were left from the Chelsea squad against Palace this weekend. Courtois started at Chelsea Goal as expected while Cahill, Azpilicueta and David Luiz were three chosen central defenders for Chelsea. Moses and Alonso started as two wingbacks while Fabregas and Bakayoko kept their place in the heart of the midfield. Hazard, Willian and Batshuayi were leading the Chelsea attack from the upfront. Conte prefered to play with a 3-4-3 formation in this match.
Roy Hodgson played with a 4-4-2 formation against Chelsea at Selhurst Park. Speroni started at Palace Goal in place Hennessy as the latter had a knock in the training a day earlier. Ward, Dann, Sakho and Van Aanholt were the four defenders for Palace in this Palace. Milivojevic, Cabaye ,MacArthur and Schulpp played in the midfield while Townsend and Zaha were leading them from the upfront.
Palace got the lead at the 11th minute of the first half when Cabaye’s shot deflected by Azpilicueta towards the Chelsea Goal and the goal was considered as an own goal by Azpilicueta. But soon Chelsea came back in the match when Timoue Bakayoko got his first Premier League Goal with the pass from Cesc Fabregas at 18th minute of the match. Moses was taken off and Zappacosta came in place of him at 40th minute of the first half. Wilfred Zaha again took the lead for Palace at the 45th minute of the match with the ball coming from Sakho. The dramatic and eventful first half had ended with Palace leading with a 2-1 margin against Chelsea.
In the second half the managers sorted out their strategies but Batshuayi had to be subbed off to give Pedro a chance to expose the Palace defense at 57th minute of the match. Charly Musonda came in place of Willian at 65th minute of the match. Milivojevic and Dann were named in the referee’s notebook due to bad fouls. Schulpp was replaced by Puncheon at 75th minute of the match. Fosu Mensah came in the field in place of MacArthur at 85th minute of the match. Yohan Cabaye was subbed off in the next minute to give Riedewald some playing minutes. Bakayoko was also booked due to a bad foul at 87th minute of the match. Chelsea had got many chances in the second half but they were not able to convert those due to absence of a proper good striker. The match had ended with Palace winning the match with a 2-1 margin against the previous season Premier League Champions.
Chelsea are now at 5th place in the League Table after back to back two defeats in the Premier League. Palace had got the first 3 points of the season from this match. Next week Palace will face Newcastle United. Chelsea will play against Roma in Champions League in the midweek and they will try to get out of the poor form from that match.
Three Reasons Why Conte Needs To React Now!!
3. The Injury Problems-
The injuries are now piling up, which is pushing the Blues downwards, as they have lost the likes of Kante, Morata, Moses and Drinkwater. The bench is not able to make up for the loss of these stars and if the results don’t go their way in the upcoming days, it will only hurt their ambitions of winning some major titles this term, along with the hopes of retaining their Premier League title as well.
2. The Morale Factor-
With two back to back losses in the top flight of English football, the morale of the team will now start going down and the west London outfit now needs to get back to winning ways. For this purpose, it will be essential that Conte urges his team to perform at their very best and get maximum points from the upcoming games, to put pressure on the Manchester based sides at the top of the points table.
1. Manchester City’s Nine Point Lead-
The major concern for the Londoners will be the form that City are currently in, under Pep Guardiola and the nine points gap between Chelsea and their fierce rivals. The Italian manager will want to resolve the issues within his squad and come up with a plan on how to cut down this gap in the days to follow. Hopefully, he can get the job done.
