Crystal Palace ended a run of 13 successive defeats against Chelsea in the Premier League with a 1-1 draw away to the Blues at Stamford Bridge, the first draw between these teams since 1995.
With the summer transfer window now closed, Chelsea’s head coach Enzo Maresca had the first chance to knuckle down and work out how to squeeze optimum value from his new-look squad.
The early signs were promising as the Blues dominated the opening exchanges. Recent recruit Cole Palmer was the first to try his luck with a curling effort that missed the target by a fraction. Noni Madueke had however failed to convert two gilt-edged chances, first firing wide from close range before being denied by Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson from point-blank range.
A slice of luck eventually gave way to a well-worked Chelsea team goal in the 25th minute as Madueke outpaced Will Hughes down the right flank and found Palmer, who played a perfect pass into Nicolas Jackson, and the striker tapped in from inside the six-yard box. Chelsea continued to dominate and, with Palace creating little of note before half-time, it was enough to make manager Oliver Glasner rethink his approach during the interval.
Palace came out re-energized in the second half and Henderson was extended again to palm over a dangerous free-kick from Palmer. The Eagles’ ascendancy was soon rewarded with a 54th-minute equalizer from Eberechi Eze. Allowed too much room on the edge of the box, Eze curled an outstanding shot into the corner beyond the helpless Robert Sánchez between Chelsea’s posts.
Maresca replied by introducing Mykhailo Mudryk for the injured Malo Gusto, but Chelsea’s new Ukrainian winger did little to impress. Chelsea pressed for a winner and Jackson missed two chances late on as he failed to find the goal in stoppage time. Palace almost nicked all three points on a number of occasions and Daichi Kamada’s powerful strike was pushed away from goal by Sánchez.
In the end, a draw that was to be welcomed by Palace as their first point of the season after suffering defeat in their opening two games of the campaign. Chelsea was left feeling frustrated as it proved to be a disappointing end to a match they had been in control of for long spells without taking their chances.
