Chelsea begin the 25/26 campaign with a sluggish uninspiring 0-0 draw to the current FA Cup holders, Crystal Palace.
A frustrating day overall for the fans, the players and the gaffer as questions have already begun even though it’s only match-day 1…
Chelsea go to the London Stadium to play West Ham on Friday night football to claim the first win of the season. With added pressure from fans the media and rival fans.
Sanchez – 6.5
A decent overall performance, made 1 crucial save from Mateta in the first half and distribution was good in the first half but second half was the old Sanchez we are used to seeing.
James – 6.5
A good performance from our skipper, handed the right hand side pretty well in most phases of play. Unfortunately, picked up a yellow card , but found it quite tricky to handle Eze with his tricks and flicks.
Acheampong – 7
A bit of a strange performance from Josh because most of Crystal Palace is joy and threat going forward came from his errors from the back.
The Crystal Palace goal initially came from an hour of his as well. However, saying that he made some vital last ditch tackles and was progressing the ball quite quickly.
Chalobah – 7.5 (MOTM)
Manhandled Mateta quite well especially the second half and his occasional drives forward from defence were positive to take in a dysfunctional attack.
Cucurella – 7
Was nice and aggressive as usual and offered some threat into the box like he was doing late last season. 1 v 1 defending was good and kept Sarr out of the game.
Caicedo – 7.5
By his standards, not the best but compared to the others he performed well. They were a couple of loose passes in midfield and Crystal Palace were finding their way through quite easily.
However, he put in a shift trying to support the attack as well as Crystal Palace’s counter attacks.
Enzo – 2
Extremely poor offensively and defensively. He looked very sluggish and not up to speed of the Premier League again.
Is short and long passing and supporting of attack wasn’t good and didn’t really notify the threat from midfield of Crystal Palace. Perhaps the club World Cup has had a big effect on his fitness and his rest time. Arguments for Andrey Santos to start against West Ham.
Neto – 5.5
The best attacker from a bad bunch. There was some nice moments in the first half where he was beating the fullback.
However, as the game went on, it seemed like he was more of a wing back trying to help out James and Cucurella. Even his crossing into the box wasn’t that good and had no service to Pedro.
Palmer – 3
Was very much non-existent this game, which is a shame because our talisman is the main link to our midfield and attack. Adam Wharton completely marked him out the game and gave him no time on the ball.
Apart from the last 15 minutes where essentially he was popping up as a left-winger trying to create chances.
Gittens- 1
A Premier League home debut to forget about for our summer signing. Didn’t seem like he took on any player and got past them.
His ball retention wasn’t good as well and lost the ball quite a few times and struggled to keep up with the pace of the game.
Pedro: 1
Genuinely couldn’t tell you a thing that Pedro did in the game. Yes, the service to him wasn’t good , but he did not test the back three of Crystal Palace at all by not running the channels.
Perhaps this was the wrong type of game for Maresca to start Pedro in.
Subs:
Estevao: 8
Looked extremely bright and lively coming off the bench. Did way more than Gittens did as soon as he came onto the pitch.
Was direct got past two Crystal Palace defenders as they were doubling up on him and it looks like if anything was gonna happen, it would be through him. Must start against West Ham.
Santos: 5
Looked a bit more sharper than Enzo did and had that glorious chance right at the end to earn us three points but horribly skied it, when he had time to take a touch and set himself to finish it.
Delap: 5.5
Engaged in the physical battle quite well against the Crystal Palace defenders. Had a few good layoffs for our winger and was a presence in the box. His cameo of the bench was much more effective than Pedro‘s.
Gusto: 5
Following on from Reece James’s substitution, Gusto mainted pretty much the same level of performance that Reece provided.
Enzo Maresca: 5
Struggle to find a solution to break down the crystal Palace deep low block.
Perhaps should’ve started Delap and Estevao given the type of game that we were in for.
Substitutions could have been made earlier as well when it wasn’t working in the first half. Still the gaffer will continue to find out his best 11 from this group of players