Chelsea 1-2 Crystal Palace: Five Talking Points

Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho loves breaking records; he’s practically made a career out of it – this one, he won’t be very proud of. His Chelsea squad of the 2015/16 season has made the worst start of any defending champions to the Premier League campaign. A season, which before it began, had them as firm favourites, now sees them languishing in 13th place with only a victory from the first four games of the season.This 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace, in his 100th home game as manager for Chelsea, and the draw on the opening day with Swansea sees Jose’s side winless at home, and struggling for answers. What went wrong, what needs to change, is there a way out of this?

#1 D for Defence

Mourinho’s last seven league defeats have been to managers beginning with P: Pulis, Poyet, Pardew, Pochettino, Pulis, Pellegrini and yet again, Pardew.

While there seems to be no truth to the ‘Curse of the P’, the curse of a strong D for defence may be the reason for Chelsea’s league defeats to these managers and their teams. Pulis, Poyet and Pardew were managers of sides that were set up not to get beat against the mighty Chelsea. Crystal Palace may have played good, entertaining football in this game, having the better chances of the two sides but Pardew’s priority before the game would have been to shut the defensive door and steal one point from Stamford Bridge.

While the trio of Hazard, Willian and Pedro, led by world-class striker, Diego Costa, should strike fear in the hearts of defences all across Europe, the star-studded Chelsea attack struggles to break through a strong defensive unit that has been drilled to withstand any number of waves of attack from the Chelsea front-line. Whether it was a penetration through the centre of the pitch with a ball from Fabregas or a ball played out-wide to Pedro or Hazard, the Crystal Palace defence isolated Costa, and forced Willian and Hazard to pick up the ball deep and run with it – making them far less dangerous, away from goal.

It could be a long season full of frustration for Costa and co., as teams begin to exploit this weakness in their attack, especially away from home.

#2 Fabregas failing to dictate play

Cesc Fabregas was the centre of everything right at Chelsea’s league winning side last season. While Eden Hazard’s name had started being whispered in the same conversation as those with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Fabregas continued to rack up assist after assist consistently, earning praise and applause from the Chelsea faithful. For some, he was the reason the club stood atop the Premier League standings at the end of the season.

This season, with everything not right with Chelsea, fingers will be pointed in every direction and few of them will land at the Spaniard. While the former Arsenal and Barcelona player has proven to be key for Chelsea in the centre of the park in recent times, his dictation of the tempo can often be criticized, much like this game against Palace. With speed, skills and raw energy running down both flanks for Chelsea, there were occasions in this game where Fabregas held onto the ball for far too long, letting the opposition defenders and wide men cover the runs of the Chelsea runners on the flanks.

Clearly out of touch and being picked in the side for his previous exploits, maybe it is time for Mourinho to look elsewhere in his team for a solution, as Fabregas is given some time to regain his form. It is also not promising for Cesc that youngsters, Kenedy and Loftus-Cheek, showed more creativity and spark in the last twenty minutes than he did all game.

#3 Palace can dream big

Crystal Palace could and should have European ambitions this season; making some incredible signings already this transfer window, the club have made it clear that they don’t want to be stuck in lower to mid-table this season and performances like the one against the defending champions will go a long way in meeting this ambition. With a talented and ambitious manager like Alan Pardew backed by a supportive boardroom, it’ll be interesting to see where Palace finish at the end of the season - with 3 wins in the first four games, they currently find themselves second in the standings.

The signing of Bakary Sako should especially be seen as a masterstroke by the manager. The 27 year old, picked up for a free transfer from Championship club, Wolves, and already has two goals and 1 assist in two appearances for his new club – causing the Chelsea defenders a lot of trouble by playing a role in both goals in the game.

The Palace team has a mix of brains, experience, skill and talent with the likes of Bolasie, Sako, Zaha, McCarthy and, the midfield maestro, Yohan Cabaye, the foundations for a strong showing in the Premier League are definitely in place for Crystal Palace and the club’s fans can certainly dream big for the club’s future.

#4 Hazard goes missing

At the start of the season, pundits, fans and everyone following the Premier League believed this would be the season Eden Hazard enters his name in the ‘World Player of the Year’ reckoning.

If the first four games of the season are any indication, Hazard won’t be coming anywhere near that prize. The Belgian superstar has found it difficult to replicate his form from last season, and has been off-colour by his standards.

The Crystal Palace game was by far Hazard’s worst this season, as the winger found it impossible to get into the game, finding space and having any sort of impact – “Where was Hazard?”, a common question on social media websites, directed towards Chelsea fans.

The Chelsea attack, which uses him as a major attacking outlet has been toothless in front of goal so far, and it’s no surprise when you note that Hazard has only had 1 shot per game in the four games played and 7 crosses overall this season. That’s not the sort of return you expect from a man that had 14 goals and 9 assists to his name last season, winning the Premier League Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year.

#5 Defensive woes continue

While the attack continues to suffer, Chelsea’s anchorman, Nemanja Matic, another one of Chelsea’s top players from last season, got pushed off the ball, came second best in most of the challenges and lacked any sort of conviction in the game against Crystal Palace. The tall, strong Serbian found himself running in circles against the Palace midfield.

There are two parts to consider looking at Matic’s wretched display here: Matic, himself, hasn’t been in great form and continued in the same vein against Crystal Palace but more importantly, it is the lack of cover Chelsea has in the middle of the park. With Fabregas doing a dismal job at defending and covering his defensive area, Crystal Palace had the entire middle of the park to exploit, which saw Matic’s faults exposed further.

Ivanovic hasn’t been in great form this season – a trend that seems to be common throughout the Chelsea lineup – and there was no change against Palace. Terry was out suspended, and while Zouma is capable of taking over from the Chelsea captain as a defender, the presence and experience of Terry was clearly missing as the team lacked a leader. This showed, when moments after equalising, the home side conceded a goal that could’ve easily been avoided; a goal that proved to be the winner for their opposition.