Chelsea vs Crystal Palace 22/23

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well.

On Sunday 15th of January Crystal Palace traveled to Stanford bridge to face Chelsea in another London derby, as the eagles looked to put an end to their bad run of form!

Due to the nature of Chelsea and Westminster’s parking we left really early, but we did manage to find a space in good time so we were at the ground 3 hours before kick-off to my stepdad’s delight 😅. The event security around the stadium was very high and we even got asked to remove our Palace car decorations in case Chelsea lost as the security guard referred to Chelsea’s ‘poor form.’

The game came at a point where both teams were struggling to pick up points, with Palace only wining one of their previous four games, although they have looked slightly stronger when on the road. Chelsea too have had a recent rough patch losing their last 3 matches, including a 4-0 battering against Manchester City in the FA Cup seeing them exit early too.

Patrick Vieira made two changes seeing Odsonne Edouard and Joel Ward drop to the bench, being replaced by Jeffrey Schlupp and Tyrick Mitchell following his recent suspension. The bench also saw the inclusion of 18-year-old academy midfielder David Ozoh who is yet to make his Premier League debut, but it won’t be long!

Before the game both sets of players and fans played tribute to ex Chelsea player Gianluca Vialli who recently passed away.

Crystal Palace’s poor form continues as a second half Kai Havertz header gives Chelsea all three points.

Chelsea started the game with a high intensity of the bounce, but it was Palace who had the first real chance. Michael Olise had a strong start down Chelsea’s defensive left side up again youngster Lewis Hall, he had some early fortune with his cross resulting in Tyrick Mitchell coming close to his second goal as a Palace player but was denied by Kepa. Frustrating the Frenchman’s danger down the left faded as the game went on.

Olise was involved in another phase of play shortly after, taking the ball greatly into his stride off his chest he shot from outside the box causing Kepa to make a fantastic save and keep his team in the game - I predicted before the game Olise would score a screamer and he came so close in the opening 15 minutes!

Palace keeper Vicente Guaita was called to action from an outside of the box shot from Thiago Silva, he managed to get down low and parry the ball out for a Chelsea corner.

The visitors did have a strong 20 minutes where they looked dangerous but just weren’t able to capitalise on the opportunity.

An area Palace struggled with in the opening half was the closing down and giving Chelsea too much time and space to run into and create things. Although the second half saw a change with the Eagles coming out with a higher intensity to close down and force Chelsea to lose the ball.

Connor Gallagher in particular was causing lots of issues for the Eagles especially down the left against a low confident Mitchell. My respect for Gallagher went down a bit in this game with the amount of time he spent on the floor but I guess it’s part of his game and he did it for us last season so I can’t really complain; although everyone in red and blue was rightly annoyed with him by the end, and he got booed by the away fans.

Chelsea youngster Lewis Hall came very close to the opening goal with his shot narrowingly passing the far post.

Palace were forced into a first half substitution which saw Joachim Andersen be replaced by James Tomkins, hopefully it’s nothing serious as we all know we’re stronger with the centre back pairing of him and Marc Guehi. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to give Chris Richards some minutes.

Jeffery Schlupp caused more problems for Chelsea’s keeper, this time a headed effort from an Eze corner was on target but again met by the hand of Kepa at the near post.

Shortly after the break it was Chelsea who took the lead with a Kai Havertz header from a corner. He would be relived having put an earlier first half chance marginally over the bar. The German striker came close to doubling the score but was unable to make contact with the ball crossed in by Mason Mount seeing it go out of play.

I feel like I say this every game but yet again the referee was appalling giving decisions against Palace for everything, Vieira even got himself booked with the anger caused.

The game ended with Palace continuing to search for the equaliser with Cheick Doucoure coming very close with a strike from outside the box, but again Kepa managed to keep it out - he really did keep his team in the game.

It was a very thrilling game to watch with lots of end to end action, the Eagles will feel hard done by coming away with nothing but sadly goals win games and they’re really struggling to get the ball in the net recently. Vieira could be in some real trouble if he can’t sort the team out soon and looking at our upcoming fixtures, he’s got a tough job on his hands; I for one hope he manages to get us through it.

The support from the away end was great as always, we have a lot more local away days coming up so hopefully I can attend many more! My next game is Manchester United back at Selhurst Park on the 18th of January, so look out for that post!

Thanks for reading

Ellie Xx