I’ll leave you with Dominic Fifield’s match report from Selhurst Park. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye!
It was comfortable for Chelsea in the end. They didn’t create much but N’Golo Kante’s goal secured Maurizio Sarri’s side a second consecutive win and moved them five points clear of fifth-placed Arsenal. It’s hard to argue that they didn’t deserve it. Crystal Palace were very negative and barely attacked. They remain five points above the bottom three.
Full-time: Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
That’s your lot!
90 min+2: David Luiz heads Milivojevic’s dangerous free-kick away.
90 min+1: Kante barges into Meyer on the left, gifting Palace a free-kick. The home fans have finally woken up.
90 min: There will be four added minutes.
89 min: Palace hurl the ball into the Chelsea area. Tomkins nods a free-kick down and Wickham volleys over from close range! That was a great chance for the Palace substitute.
88 min: Chelsea make their final change, Mateo Kovacic replacing Ross Barkley.
86 min: Palace have another shot! But Zaha’s bending effort flies miles over.
85 min: Palace have a shot! Honest! But Van Aanholt’s effort’s deflected over. Corner. Which is useless.
82 min: Chelsea make their second change, Emerson Palmieri replacing Willian.
80 min: Palace are offering absolutely nothing. I don’t think Kepa has had to make a save.
78 min: Palace make their second change, Max Meyer replacing Cheikhou Kouyate.
76 min: Alvaro Morata replaces the injured Olivier Giroud. The Sky commentators note that Morata spent most of his half-time warm-up mooching around with his hands in his pockets.
73 min: Giroud smashes the ball into net after being played in by Willian. The flag’s up for offside again, though. That was so tight and to add insult to injury Giroud took a whack on the ankle from Tomkins as he was shooting. He needs treatment.
Updated
69 min: Palace make a change before the corner, Connor Wickham replacing Jeffrey Schlupp. The corner comes to nothing.
68 min: Chelsea look for a killer second goal. Hazard, so full of mischief, draws a host of Palace players towards him on the left of the area and then he produces a brilliant backheel to replace Willian, who sees a low shot pushed away by Guiata. The ball comes back to Barkley, who sees a 20-yarder deflected wide.
67 min: PALACE HAVE AN ATTACK.
64 min: Azpilicueta wriggles past Schlupp but the Chelsea right-back has the ball pinched off him before he can play it across to Giroud. Chelsea are utterly dominant.
60 min: Elsewhere I see that Burnley have dropped Joe Hart for their home game against West Ham, which kicks off in an hour. Poor Hartdog. He’s going to have to go to the MLS, isn’t he.
57 min: Willian’s down after a collision with Milivojevic. He seems winded and needs some treatment.
55 min: There hasn’t been much of a response from Palace yet. They might need to get Max Meyer on soon.
52 min: Palace might have to do one or two attacks now!
This is a lovely goal from Chelsea, who finally something to show for all their possession. Under little pressure inside Palace’s half, David Luiz looks up and drives a fine pass over the top of the Palace defence. Sakho’s caught out and Van Aanholt isn’t quick enough to realise that Kante’s pulled off him. Kante runs in from the right, takes the ball on his chest and squeezes a low left-footed shot past Guiata, who can’t stop the ball squirming over the line.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea (Kante, 51 min)
Assist: your MBM reporter.
Updated
50 min: Willian takes his eye off the ball and lets a pass from Kante run under his foot and out for a throw.
48 min: There has been no change to the pattern of this game. Chelsea are passing endlessly in harmless areas in front of Palace, who are giving them no room in the final third. It’s hard to see either side scoring at the moment.
46 min: Crystal Palace get the second half underway. There have been no changes at half-time. I wonder if Chelsea would benefit from removing a midfielder and putting Alvaro Morata alongside Olivier Giroud - or is Sarri too wedded to The System?
Half-time: Crystal Palace 0-0 Chelsea
That was dull. And it will remain dull until Chelsea start to play with more urgency.
Updated
45 min: There will be an unnecessary one minute of added time.
43 min: Nothing is happening.
40 min: Townsend sprints to the right to stop a ball running out of play but his momentum carries him into a pitchside photographer, stopping him from turning and crossing.
37 min: From Willian’s corner, Barkley reminds us of his existence by holding off McArthur and pinging an acrobatic overhead kick against the post. The ball bounces behind for a Palace goal-kick, bringing an end to a sustained spell of Chelsea pressure.
36 min: Willian’s corner is headed away but Chelsea keep pressing. Willian collects possession on the left, dips inside and drives a low shot towards the near post from 25 yards, forcing Guiata to tip wide. That’s a good save.
35 min: Willian and Alonso both stand over the free-kick. David Luiz is there too. It’s Willian, the right footer, who takes it and he whips a fine effort over the wall and towards the right corner. It clips the post and goes behind. Bizarrely the officials award a corner, thinking that Guiata pushed it wide. There was no touch from the Palace goalkeeper. The hosts will be furious if they concede here.
Updated
34 min: Hazard zigzags through the middle and eventually has his heels clipped by Kouyate just outside the D. Chelsea have a free-kick in a very dangerous position.
Updated
33 min: After a lengthy spell of aimless Chelsea passing, Jorginho finally decides to have a shot. It goes miles wide. He’ll pass next time.
Updated
31 min: This is what the phrase “sterile domination” was invented for.
28 min: Jorginho finds space on the edge of the Palace area and thinks about a shot for a moment. Instead he tries to thread another pass through the eye of the needle. Palace frustrate him. Moments later Giroud runs on to a ball over the top and lashes a brilliant strike past Guiata, only to see that the flag’s up for offside. He was a yard ahead of Palace’s back four.
Updated
27 min: “I agree that Palace are defending well, and would like to mention Wan-Bissaka in particular for being impressive,” Adam Kline-Schoder says. “I remember when he was called up to the first team, and the commentator followed up his name with the phrase “...who is making his first-team debut tonight.” Usually that precedes an absolute chasing, but he was phenomenal and really has kicked on since. He’s kept Alonso quiet so far, and has instigated attacks as well. A real prospect for Palace in the present, and (hopefully) England in future.”
25 min: Hazard hasn’t done much yet. Maybe he should play as a False Nine again.
22 min: “With Hudson-Odoi apparently on the brink of leaving the club, other youth players (especially Loftus-Cheek and Christensen) might start to re-consider their situaton at the club as well,” Konstantin Sauer says. “It tells a lot that Hudson-Odoi expects more playing time at Bayern Munich, a club that is not known for bringing up youth players.”
20 min: Kante tries another shot from the edge of the area but a deflection makes it comfortable for Guiata. Palace are defending well.
Updated
18 min: Milivojevic finds Townsend, who tries to cut inside from the right and let fly with his left foot. Jorginho stops him and Chelsea set off on a counter. Giroud holds the ball up on the right before turning a pass back to Kante, who whips a shot wide from 20 yards.
16 min: Kepa easily claims McArthur’s corner. Chelsea try to break but their counterattack fizzles out when Hazard tumbles near the halfway line. He looks plaintively at Craig Pawson, but the referee isn’t interested in his complaints.
15 min: Wan-Bissaka slides a pass through to McArthur, whose cross hits Rudiger and goes behind for a Palace corner.
14 min: Willian dinks a clever ball into the area and Palace fail to watch Rudiger’s run from right to left. The Chelsea centre-back tries to glance a header over Guaita but he doesn’t get enough height or pace on his effort and the Palace goalkeeper makes an easy save.
13 min: Hazard saunters down the left. McArthur trips him. Free-kick to Chelsea. Willian will take it.
11 min: Palace probe down the right and fling the ball into the area. Zaha goes down under a challenge from Rudiger. Palace claim a penalty. Nothing doing. They settle for a corner, which comes to nothing.
10 min: Marcos Alonso fails to keep a poor pass in play on the left. Then he catches the ball and chucks it away in a fit of annoyance, earning himself a needless booking. What a buffoon.
7 min: Palace break for the first time, Townsend darting down the right, but the winger’s crowded out by three Chelsea players.
Updated
5 min: The early pattern is set, Chelsea probing, Palace sitting back in Hodgson-approved two banks of four.
3 min: Chelsea are helping themselves to a long spell of possession. Palace are sitting back.
Peep! After an impeccably observed minute’s silence, Chelsea get the game underway. The visitors, wearing their yellow away kit, are kicking from right to left in the first half.
Before we start, a minute’s silence.
Prior to kick-off, there will be a minute's silence to pay respects for former players of #CPFC 🦅 and Chelsea, and Palace fans who passed away in 2018. #CRYCHE
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) December 30, 2018
Here come the teams! Glad All Over blares out across Selhurst Park. We’ll have football soon.
Pre-match reading
Chelsea fans will also note there’s no place in the 18 for Callum Hudson-Odoi, the talented 18-year-old winger. Bayern Munich are supposedly interested in the English youngster. Are Chelsea going to lose one of their brightest academy products to the German giants?
Crystal Palace make one change from the side that drew with Cardiff on Boxing Day. Jeffrey Schlupp is in for Max Meyer and starts on the left wing.
Chelsea make two changes to the side that beat Watford. Ross Barkley replaces Mateo Kovacic in midfield and Olivier Giroud starts in place of the hamstrung Pedro, meaning Eden Hazard returns to the left flank. There’s no sign of Cesc Fabregas or Gary Cahill, both of whom could be heading out of Stamford Bridge soon.
Team news
Crystal Palace: Guiata; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt; McArthur, Milivojevic, Kouyate, Schlupp; Townsend, Zaha. Subs: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Meyer, Puncheon, Wickham, Ayew.
Chelsea: Kepa; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Rudiger, Alonso; Jorginho, Kante, Barkley; Willian, Giroud, Hazard. Subs: Caballero, Emerson, Zappacosta, Christensen, Ampadu, Kovacic, Morata.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Preamble
Hello. After admitting that he has been slightly taken aback by the pace and intensity of English football (hooray for us!), this is set to be another interesting experience for Maurizio Sarri. It’s a wet, drab day in London and Selhurst Park is one of those tight, atmospheric grounds where space is hard to come by, the fans are on your back and big visiting teams have to work hard to earn the right to play their silky passing games. Chelsea found that out the hard way when they lost this fixture to an inspired Wilfried Zaha last season and Crystal Palace will fancy their chances of claiming another famous scalp after last weekend’s stunning victory away to Manchester City.
This isn’t the easiest one to call. Chelsea come into this game on the back of a hard-fought win away to Watford but they were poor at home to Leicester last weekend and have also suffered on the road recently, losing badly at Tottenham and Wolves. Sarri has made it clear time and again that his team remains a work in progress. Though a second consecutive will take them five points clear of fifth-placed Arsenal, a title challenge looks beyond them at the moment. They lie 14 points behind Liverpool before kick-off and it seems unlikely that they have enough to catch Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The general consensus is that Chelsea won’t be challengers until they sign a top striker, which is why Eden Hazard has spent the last few weeks gritting his teeth after being asked to play as a False Nine. Lower down the league, however, Palace know the feeling. Roy Hodgson’s men have had to play without a recognised forward for most of the season because of Christian Benteke’s long injury absence and it was telling that they followed up their win over City with a goalless home draw against Cardiff on Boxing Day; let’s just say that Andros Townsend isn’t going to stick stunning volleys into the top corner every week. They’ve only managed 17 goals in 19 games, leaving them closer to the bottom three than they’d prefer. Knowing Palace, however, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if they’ve got plans to meet Sarriball with an afternoon of blood and thunder.
Kick-off: 12pm GMT.
Updated
