CRYSTAL PALACE 0 CHELSEA 3

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

Crystal Palace were given a reality check as a resurgent Chelsea beat them comfortably on their ground in the pouring rain, to earn their Interim Coach Guus Hiddink his first win, during his second spell in charge of the West London team.

In the fifth minute, Palace had a throw in, which was taken by Joel Ward, who found Frazier Campbell in acres of space in Chelsea’s six-yard box but he failed to hit the target.  A minute later Wilfred Zaha saw his shot go wide of the post.  

Within a quarter of an hour of the game, Eden Hazard was injured and was replaced by Pedro.    Just after the midway point of the half, Jason Puncheon crossed the ball from the left into the box but Campbell could not make enough contact to steer it goal wards. Palace looked the brighter of both sides up to that stage and looked more likely to score. Chelsea on the other hand, had not quite come to grips with the game yet.

Football matches change though within a minute. Chelsea may not be where they ought to be but the quality is still there as was evident in the 27^th minute when the reinstated Mikel Obi found Cesc Fabregas, who in turn found Diego Costa with a delightful pass.  Costa squared the ball to Oscar, who had the simple task of tapping it into an empty net to give Chelsea the lead.  All Palaces’ early enterprise counted for nothing as they were undone by one quality move.

Chelsea who were now dominating, were threatening to score a second.  Cesar Azpilicueta unleashed a shot from the left, which was parried by Wayne Hennessey and headed for a corner by Scott Dann.  Chelsea led 0-1 at the break.

In the second half, Zaha was played through by Campbell, but his weak shot failed to beat Courtois.  A minute later, and Palace would rue that miss as Oscar got hold of the ball on the edge of the D.  Dann upended him but the referee, Kevin Friend played the advantage as the ball fell to Willian, who hit a shot into the roof of Hennessey’s goal to double Chelsea’s lead.

In the 66^th minute, Chelsea put the game to bed as Willian drove a cart through the Palace defence and hit a shot across Hennessey, which he could only parry to the oncoming Costa who stabbed the ball home, despite Joel Ward making a last ditch effort to intercept it.  Chelsea’s class had shone through and once again they reminded all why they were champions 9 months ago.

Palace’s toothless attack came back to bite them once again. Surely a  striker must be on Alan Pardew’s shopping wish list when the January transfer window opens.  The loss of Yohan Cabaye and Yanick Bolasie also cannot be underestimated, however if you want to go places in the Premier League, that should not be an excuse.  Most of the balls Palace crossed into the box were over hit and they generally lacked the quality in the final third to trouble Chelsea.

Pardew said: “It is unlike us.  We needed to score first today. Most of our games have been tight. We had some big players missing but I do not want to moan about it. Chelsea deserved to win today. Make no mistake about it.”

Chelsea on the other hand would take confidence from this performance and try to continue to climb as high up the table as they can.  There are still two cups for them to play for. This is the kind of form they would want to take into their Champions League 2^nd round tie.  Hiddink said: “We know there is a lot of quality in this squad.”