A change of personnel almost paid dividends for Patrick Vieira as Palace frustrated the visitors for much of the game but struggled to find that cutting edge in the final third to do any real damage.
DATE
19th February 2022
RESULT
Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
VENUE
Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU
OFFICIALS
Referee: David Coote. Assistants: Stuart Burt, Nick Hopton. Fourth official: Michael Salisbury. VAR: Michael Oliver. Assistant VAR: Neil Davies
DISCIPLINE
BOOKINGS – Malang Sarr (62), Michael Olise (68), Kai Havertz (90+1), Christian Pulisic (90+2)
RED CARD – none
GOALS
Hakim Ziyech (89)
ASSISTS
Marcos Alonso (89)
TEB VERDICT
The Eagles put in a decent performance against the Club World Cup winners but found it difficult to get the goal they arguably deserved and ultimately paid the price for not doing. Vieira rang the changes for this match after two draws in a row and opted to play Wilfried Zaha up front leaving three strikers on the bench, and it very nearly worked with the industrious Jordan Ayew one side and Michael Olise adding to his ever increasing stock.
As has been the case so often this season, the achilles heel has been letting in late goals and no matter the opposition, Palace should have been rewarded for their efforts with a point from this game but they can go into the next few games in good spirits and hopefully a return to picking up some points.
BOB’S POINT OF VIEW
Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.
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PLAYER RATINGS
13 Vicente Guaita (7), 17 Nathaniel Clyne (6), 16 Joachim Andersen (7), 6 Marc Guehi (7), 3 Tyrick Mitchell (7), 8 Cheikhou Kouyate (6), 18 James McArthur (6), 15 Jeffrey Schlupp (6), 9 Jordan Ayew (6), 7 Michael Olise (7), 11 Wilfried Zaha (6)
SUBSTITUTES – 1 Jack Butland (6 – replaced Guaita on 45 mins), 4 Luka Milivojevic, 10 Eberechi Eze (6 – replaced Ayew on 85 mins), 12 Will Hughes, 14 Jean-Philippe Mateta (6 – replaced McArthur on 90+2 mins), 20 Christian Benteke, 22 Odsonne Edouard, 34 Martin Kelly, 45 Tayo Adaramola
OPPOSITION LINE-UP
16 Mendy, 4 Christensen, 6 Thiago Silva, 2 Rudiger, 31 Sarr, 7 Kante, 5 Jorginho, 10 Pulisic, 22 Ziyech, 9 Lukaku, 29 Havertz
SUBSTITUTES – 1 Arrizabalaga, 3 Alonso (replaced Sarr on 74 mins), 8 Kovacic (replaced Kante on 74 mins), 11 Werner, 12 Loftus-Cheek (replaced Jorginho on 74 mins), 14 Chalobah, 17 Saul, 23 Kenedy, 68 Vale
POST GAME QUOTES
PATRICK VIEIRA – “We knew that to get something from the game, we needed to work hard and we did, we stayed in the game and to concede at the end is frustrating because I believe we can defend it better. Against Chelsea you will create little chances and when you do, you need to make them count. When we did, we did not make the goalkeeper work. It is a team performance, the way we defended the situation. On the crosses we should do better, Tyrick Mitchell maybe could do better but as a team we should stop those kind of goals. With Chelsea’s strength going forward we defend it quite well and matched them. To concede a goal like that at the end is frustrating. We are not going to play Chelsea every week and there is a lot of positives to take. It is about the experience and I am really pleased with the team performance.”
THOMAS TUCHEL– “It was not the time to over expect something from us, we came from where we came, played 120 minutes in the FA Cup, 120 minutes in the Club World Cup in 30C temperature difference, we had jet lag against a good opponent, a tough team to play. We managed to win, keep a clean sheet, well deserved and could have scored in the first half. If you score late it is always lucky, nobody ever denies that but you need a bit of luck to win games. If you win them, there is not a need to think too long about it. They are a strong side at home, have confidence and are well rested. That is how it is. It is the best thing to come back and restart winning.”
MATCH STATISTICS
The Who Scored man of the match was Hakim Ziyech (8.0) who also had had the most shots (3). The most tackles were made Tyrick Mitchell (8) while the most dribbles were by Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic (4)
- Team rating: 6.48 – 6.72
- Total shots: 7 – 9
- Shots on target: 0 – 3
- Possession: 42.2% – 57.8%
- Pass success: 78% – 83%
- Passes: 366 – 516
- Dribbles: 8 – 10
- Aerials won: 9 – 9
- Tackles: 22 – 17
- Fouls: 4 – 20
- Corners: 4 – 4
- Saves: 2 – 0
- Dispossessed: 7 – 12
POSITION IN THE TABLE
At the final whistle, Palace were 13th in the Premier League with 26 points from 25 games played, a point behind Villa in 12th and two ahead of Brentford 14th
UPCOMING FIXTURES
23/02/22 Watford (a) – Premier League (7.30pm)
26/02/22 Burnley (h) – Premier League (3pm)
01/02/22 Stoke (h) – FA Cup (7.30pm)
