Chelsea were silenced by Crystal Palace, led and motivated by the return of Wilfried Zaha. His goal just before halftime eventually turned out to be the winner for a team which hadn’t scored until yesterday in the league.
With Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool failing to win, the loss against Palace will hurt even more. Here are the Chelsea player ratings…
Thibaut Courtois – 7/10
An array of good saves. Couldn’t do much about the goal.
Victor Moses – 6/10
Not much to show as he limped off, but a decent performance.
Cesar Azpilicueta – 4/10
The worst performance by him, in a long time. He allowed too many crosses to come in, let players turn easily, made defensive errors and wasn’t good enough with the long balls either. A match to forget, he will probably never play as bad as today, in the entire season.
David Luiz – 6/10
He was chasing Zaha well and also switching play from centre to the sides.
Gary Cahill – 7/10
Hardworking and safe, a good performance by the skipper. He put in a lot of effort and cleared the ball out of trouble on a number of occasions, but was exposed far too often by the Chelsea midfield which missed Kanté.
Marcos Alonso – 5/10
Forget about the threat in the box and going forward, Alonso was horrible at the back. He gave away too much vacancy which allowed free crosses to come in and too much to be asking from Gary Cahill. He didn’t get back on time either.
Cesc Fabregas – 8/10
Player of the match from Chelsea’s side. He was breathtaking with the set pieces and corners, asking questions all the time. Fabregas won the ball back on a number of occasions and hit the woodwork once.
Tiemoue Bakayoko – 6.5/10
He got the goal, a cool and smart finish. However, he couldn’t use his strength against Zaha and got dispossessed many times in midfield.
Eden Hazard – 6.5/10
He was great with the flicks, back heels and one-touch passing. He won fouls for his team too. Tried to fall deeper and create something as Palace defended well and denied him too much space.
Willian – 5/10
He couldn’t manage to keep the ball, played passes a touch later which resulted in too much traffic around him. He needs to combine better. We are all witnessing a dip in form of this talented Brazilian.
Michy Batshuayi – 3/10
Michy failed to do everything you’d expect from a striker. He missed a free header too. Chelsea missed Morata and you get the feeling Batshuayi is more suited to a super-sub role than starting a game and leading the line.
Substitutes
Davide Zappacosta – 8/10
Found a lot of space down the right, he showed superb ball control and crossing. He was precise and creative with his deliveries into the box.
Pedro – 8/10
He did a lot of running trying to cross, overlap and brought fluency to Chelsea’s attack. He ran behind the Palace backline and tested their shape. He got shots away quickly too.
Charly Musonda – 7.5/10
Yes, the substitutes were the best players for Chelsea. He was extremely good using his strength considering his age and experience in the league, had neat first touch, showed good skill but lacked the incision.
