Eze bewitches menacing Chelsea to steal a point

Draws are not generally significant, but this was historic. Chelsea had won their previous 13 Premier League matches against Crystal Palace and there had not been a draw in the past 27 meetings, but somehow Oliver Glasner’s team held on after a gorgeous second-half equaliser from Eberechi Eze. It was a point that looked unlikely after a suave first-half Chelsea performance.
There was an almost shockingly settled look to the Chelsea line-up. Jadon Sancho, the club’s surprise deadline-day signing, was unavailable, having arrived on loan from Manchester United too late in the day to be eligible, but otherwise the starting XI was probably what most Chelsea fans wanted and expected to see.
Enzo Maresca has been insistent that he knows his core group amid a bloated squad and this was evidence that the head coach meant it. His team meant it too. They were comfortable in their shape and with who would run where. Palace found it hard to wrest any sort of possession as the home team passed the ball around with patience and a hint of menace.
Cole Palmer fired wide the first shot in anger but on Palace’s first foray, Adam Wharton was able to force a low save from Robert Sánchez. This gave Glasner’s players a tad more confidence to move the ball more adventurously, which in turn gave Chelsea more space. Noni Madueke ought to have exploited it after skipping in between two defenders but placed wide what seemed a simple finish. He followed that up with a close-range volley from a looped Enzo Fernández cross but Dean Henderson pulled off a dramatic reaction save.
There was little the exposed Henderson could do after the home team broke at pace, with Madueke feeding the ball to Palmer, who flicked it across the face of goal to the predatory Nicolas Jackson. It was a fitting way for the Senegal forward to mark the fact he had just extended his contract to 2033, particularly as the club had been linked with Victor Osimhen and Ivan Toney in the transfer window.
“I’m very happy,” Maresca said about the deal, while acknowledging that he did not know its length. “Nicolas is doing a fantastic job with us, on and off the ball, he scored already two goals [this season]. He scored again today. He had another two chances, but we are happy with him.”
The striker’s next attempt was a soft header from a promising Pedro Neto cross. Palace won a free kick from 35 yards out just before half-time and Eze, as if annoyed with how little he had seen the ball, delivered a wildly optimistic and slightly petulant low effort that did not even cause Sánchez to blink, let alone flinch.
When Will Hughes fouled Palmer 25 yards out, the fans bayed for a booking which would have resulted in the midfielder being sent off for a second yellow, but he evaded a caution and Palmer tested Henderson with a fine free kick. Maresca said that he would like to see a rule change that allows a VAR to intervene when a foul could result in a second yellow card, while Glasner, aware that Hughes was a tad fortunate, immediately replaced him with Cheick Doucouré, who added much needed muscle and audacity.
It was not just the change in personnel that helped. Glasner showed the team two video clips at half-time to illustrate how they were losing the ball in transition.
“We got the game more in their half, especially in the final third,” Glasner said of the second-half performance. So, really, congrats to the team that they could adapt it so quickly at half-time.”
The Palace manager always shows up to three clips at the interval to highlight flaws and potential solutions and this was one occasion where it was clear the team were energised by what they saw.
Then came the moment the travelling fans had their fingers crossed for when Eze produced a beautiful piece of control to deceive Sánchez with a curled strike after connecting with a blocked clearance from a Doucouré shot. Whenever Eze shapes to shoot he somehow manages to bewitch the opposition so that they gawp rather than close him down.
The contest shifted gear. Palace now posed a threat and Chelsea were affronted that their control had not delivered more goals. Daichi Kamada was given too much space to try to beat Sánchez, whose save from the Japan international’s sweeping strike was tentative. After a wasteful pass to Eze by Daniel Muñoz, the home side broke and Jackson’s strike hit the side-netting. He then had another chance as he burst through the Palace back line but Henderson smothered at close range. The substitute João Félix dribbled past several challenges but his shot lacked oomph.
The Palace defence will be boosted once their new signing from Wolfsburg, the highly rated Maxence Lacroix, has settled into the squad. And in future games they will be able to call upon Trevoh Chalobah, signed on loan from Chelsea. But their best news was, really, that having let Joachim Andersen join Fulham, Glasner was able to hang on to the ever-so-solid Marc Guéhi, who guided his team to a hard-fought draw.
“You can see the frustrations from the players,” Maresca said. “But in the way we played today, we are going to win games.”
It is all too easy to lambast Chelsea for their counterintuitive recruitment plan but Maresca has found a way to bypass the eccentricities and forge a clear team spirit. Chelsea fans may wonder at the sense in signing Sancho, given that a striker would have been more useful than yet another winger, but Maresca was upbeat.
“Jadon is a player that is here because we like that kind of player, especially in the last third against low blocks like today. When you face a team like today, low block, and you do not create, then you can say, ‘OK, we need this player or that player.’ ”
Wolverhampton Wanderers, in being so audacious last weekend and losing 6-2, advertised how not to play against Chelsea, who found Palace’s low block frustrating. Yet Chelsea still produced seven shots on target and looked cohesive — as well as aghast at the individual brilliance of Eze.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): R Sánchez 6 — M Cucurella 6, L Colwill 6, W Fofana 6, M Gusto 7 (M Mudryk 74) — E Fernández 7, M Caicedo 6 — P Neto 6 (J Felix 58, 6), C Palmer 7, N Madueke 8 (C Nkunku 86) — N Jackson 7. Booked Neto, Jackson, Palmer.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): D Henderson 7 — M Guéhi 7, C Richards 6, N Clyne 6 — T Mitchell 6, W Hughes 6 (C Doucouré 50, 8), A Wharton 7, D Muñoz 6 — E Eze 8, D Kamada 6 (J Schlupp 88) — J Mateta 6 (I Sarr 69, 6). Booked Hughes, Munoz.
Referee J Gillett.