Crystal Palace’s French midfielder Bakary Sako (second left) celebrates after scoring his team’s first goal during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge in London yesterday.

 

The Guardian/London


Chelsea looked to have saved a point here with a 78th-minute equalising goal via Radamel Falcao’s diving header that was both brilliantly executed and entirely out of keeping with their performance up to that point. That they still ended up losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace, a second defeat in four matches for the champions, was both fair reward for a fine, disciplined, performance by Alan Pardew’s team; and a fair reflection of Chelsea’s performance at a muggy Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea started the day in tenth place after three matches, five spots behind the visitors, and with a sense of having spent the early weeks of the season so far crunching around in the high gears, jittery at the back and skittish at times in attack. Defeat here is hardly disastrous, but the nature of the performance from a Chelsea team lacking not just leadership, but energy, preciosity and a worrying lack of focus in too many positions will trouble José Mourinho even more than the defeat by Manchester City.
This is to take nothing away from Crystal Palace, who were excellent here, a team of muscular, pacey ball-players, brilliantly well-drilled in deep defence and skilful counterattack down both flanks. Jason Puncheon is a lovely, careful passer of the ball and here he out-Cesc’ed Chelsea’s own midfield creator for long periods of the game, funnelling the ball out to his wide players, always finding space and strolling about to great effect in his central playmaker role. Bakary Sako, scorer of Palace’s first goal was a menace throughout against a Chelsea team unsettled by injury and suspension and reconfigured into its fifth different starting eleven in five games so far this season. Kurt Zouma, as expected, filled the hole left by John Terry’s suspension.
Pedro started his first home match, offering some much needed pace and directness, on the opposite flank to Eden Hazard with Willian deployed as one of top level football’s more blue collar No10s, a source of hustle and pressure but little in the way of grace and poise.
For Palace Yannick Bolasie returned to the bench after a period of leave to mourn the death of his father – he was singled out for a special hug by Mourinho before kick-off - with Connor Wickham starting up front and Sako, Wilf Zaha and Jason Puncheon interchanging fluidly behind. They started well, forcing a series of corners on the left and harrying Chelsea in possession. Wickham and Sako may not go down in history as one of the great creative goalscoring duos, but they could undoubtedly moonlight successfully in the piano lifting trade.
Before long Chelsea had settled into a slightly reserved attacking rhythm, their best moments early on coming when Pedro, Willian and Hazard switched the ball neatly across the front of the Palace defence. With 18 minutes gone Chelsea’s new signing cut inside and curled a shot just wide of the far corner, almost but not quite their first effort on target
Diego Costa’s most notable contributions in the early moments involved a familiar running skirmish with Scott Dann. Cesc Fabregas, as he has been too often, was largely anonymous in a muscular, crowded midfield. And overall a Chelsea team playing here at in the Premier League without a single vertebrae in that famous ten year spine of Cech-Terry-Lampard-Drogba lacked nothing in the way of industry but plenty perhaps when it comes to leadership
Palace came closer to taking the lead on 28 minutes, Zaha weaving across the box and teeing up the unmarked Yohan Cabaye, whose shot was saved brilliantly by Thibaut Courtois. Chelsea finally roused themselves four minute before half time, and might have taken the lead after some fine work by Costa down the left was followed by a low stinging shot that Alex McCarthy saved low down, before doing so again from Fabregas on the follow-up.
The need for muscle, bark, and sergeant-majorly instruction is often a little overstated in English football, with its history of barrack-room style hierarchies. Here Hazard did his best to create a spacer among the kindling. Costa did his best to pick a fight. But this was a mannered, polite, neat, unimposing Chelsea in a goalless first half.
Costa did his best to help rouse the champions. Just after the hour mark he picked up the ball in the centre circle and charged 20 yards in possession past Dann before laying the ball off to Hazard, who shot wide. But it was Palace who took the lead on 64 minutes with the goal they had been threatening to score all game. It came from the left flank. Pape Soaré played a sharp pass to Bolasie, just on the pitch for Zaha. His low cross was allowed to travel all the way across the Chelsea area to Sako. His first effort was semi-blocked by the sliding César Azpilicueta. For his second he had time to set himself and slot the ball past Courtois. The Palace bench erupted, Pardew punched the air, they had deserved their lead.
Chelsea roused themselves to equalise though Falcao after some fine work and an excellent cross by Pedro from the right, but this always looked likely to be Palace’s afternoon against champions who now find themselves eight points behind Manchester City.

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