Crystal Palace 1-2

Guardian:

Crystal Palace shock champions Chelsea as Wilfried Zaha secures vital win

C Palace 2 - 1 Chelsea

Dominic Fifield at Selhurst Park

Something remarkable happened here. At 3.11pm, albeit courtesy of a Chelsea player, Crystal Palace finally scored a league goal. And more significantly in the context of this club’s season as a whole, at just before 5pm when Andre Marriner’s whistle shrilled and the division’s whipping boys, previously pointless and goalless, had hoisted themselves not off the foot, but at least off the mark. “It is the start of the fightback,” offered Wilfried Zaha in the tunnel. The din still reverberating around the stands betrayed new-found belief.

This was a script that no one, least of all Chelsea’s champions, had envisaged being played out in this previously angst-ridden corner of south-east London. Yet for all the visitors’ huff and puff after the interval as they desperately pursued parity, it was a contest Roy Hodgson’s team deserved to claim for their industry alone. Zaha, on his first appearance since the opening day, secured only Palace’s second home league win against these opponents in 27 years with a goal clipped across Thibaut Courtois on the stroke of half-time, just reward for Mamadou Sakho’s dispossession of Willian in midfield and a cleverly slid pass for the makeshift striker to collect.

It was a goal Palace’s zest merited, and a concession that rather summed up Chelsea’s off-colour performance, all indecision and lethargy where Palace snapped and harried. Willian had dawdled on the ball but none of Davide Zappacosta, César Azpilicueta or David Luiz was sharp enough to suffocate the threat posed by the Palace’s talisman, Zaha.

The atmosphere in this arena had been lifted merely at confirmation that the Ivory Coast forward, together with Julián Speroni, was in the starting lineup. The sight of opponents gasping in pursuit of the ball merely raised expectations further. “Our start was poor,” grumbled the Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte. “When you play against Crystal Palace away you have to start with more personality otherwise you allow your opponent to take confidence.”

Given Palace are one of the more generous teams at home in the top-flight, and had been beaten in 11 of their previous 12 league games, that was damning of Chelsea. They had pilfered an equaliser, Tiémoué Bakayoko rising to nod in Cesc Fàbregas’ corner after seven minutes in arrears, but lacked the dynamism of last term in the absence of N’Golo Kanté. Victor Moses became the latest to succumb to hamstring trouble before the break and though Fàbregas struck the bar and Speroni did well to deny Marcos Alonso and Pedro, this was uncharacteristically slack throughout.

“The performance was not up to standard for whatever reason,” bemoaned the captain Gary Cahill before deflecting the most obvious excuse of the disruption caused by the international break. “We have many players who go away, but that’s part and parcel and we need to be livelier. Today it was the basics [that were wrong] and it was unlike us.”

Michy Batshuayi’s stroppy substitution, swearing to the heavens and then flinging his strapping down on the touchline, summed up the fractious mood. This was a second successive league defeat, and that magnificent performance at Atlético Madrid suddenly seems an age away. “But we have to find the will to fight,” added Conte. “This season will be very difficult and, for this reason we have to put 150% in. It’s not enough to put 100% in like last year. We want to try and be competitive in all competitions, but it won’t be easy.” His team now languish nine points off the leaders, Manchester City. A year ago, when they had embarked on that 13-game winning streak, the gap was three at this point.

Perhaps they had been shocked by Palace’s urgent opening, a feverish start which yielded that elusive first goal of the season. James McArthur had liberated Andros Townsend to the byline, with the winger pulling a cross back for Yohan Cabaye to collect on the run. David Luiz’s touch propelled the loose ball back on to the Frenchman who, almost inadvertently, poked it goalwards, but it took a deflection off Azpilicueta on the edge of the six-yard box to take it beyond the grasp of Courtois.

It had been 731 minutes, a drought stretching back to the final game of last season, since staff and supporters of the club last celebrated a league goal. All those dreadful records had been accumulating ever since as three managers tried and failed to find a way through, though by the end here, that was all forgotten.

Hodgson’s tactics, with Townsend and Zaha a skilful and rapid partnership and midfielders plugging gaps all over the pitch, had proved to be a masterstroke, the plan hatched over the two-week international break. They might have added further rewards before the end, with Patrick van Aanholt squirting a hurried shot wide of a gaping goal after Courtois could only palm out Townsend’s attempt, but it mattered not. They are off the mark and at the final whistle, life at the bottom of the league can never have been sweeter.

“You forget how stressful those last minutes of a football match are, so it’s quite nice to be sitting here relaxed knowing Chelsea can’t score now,” added Hodgson. “I’m off to Southampton to watch [next Saturday’s opponents] Newcastle tomorrow, so my wife, who is accompanying me, can’t say I don’t give her a day out …”

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Independent:

Crystal Palace stun Chelsea to end their goal drought and pick up their first Premier League points of the season

Crystal Palace 2 Chelsea 1: Wilfried Zaha returned to the fray for Palace and inspired the struggling side to an unlikely victory over Antonio Conte's title chasers

Ed Malyon Selhurst Park


There is life, after all, at Crystal Palace.

Wilfried Zaha is not the messiah but he is a very talented boy and the Ivorian’s performance mirrored that of his team on a day when the Eagles looked at times unstoppable but at others beset by a fragile self-confidence and, at the end, leggy and holding on.

Ultimately though, they were victorious. Zaha especially. Sidelined with injury as Palace fell to defeat after defeat, goals as rare as hen’s teeth, Zaha restored their bite. Chelsea’s shallow squad once again looked like it had bitten off more than it could chew.


This was a game that started with one team playing no striker and finished with neither bothering to. Zaha, out of position, led the line for his side in the absence of any senior alternative at the club and his bewitching trickery coupled with an under-appreciated tenacity marked him out once again as Palace’s most important player.

Zaha was not the only star for Palace on the day but he provided the majority of their dangerous moments and their winner on the cusp of half-time. By that point in an action-packed first half we had seen the Eagles break their 731-minute Premier League goal drought, ended in a manner as close to the proverbial ‘off-the-backside’ as possible without a ball touching someone’s derrière.

Yohan Cabaye’s prodded effort went in via two Chelsea defenders, eventually chalked up as an own goal by Cesar Azpilicueta, and while the ball left Thibaut Courtois rooted and helpless, Selhurst Park was on its feet, in raptures.


This ground is rarely better than when there are richer, more heralded London rivals in town. Such is life in the capital that nearly all of the sell-out crowd in SE25 will know a Chelsea fan who has paraded their success as Palace fizzle and pop below the Premier League’s elite.

It is only a few miles from the well-heeled environs that Chelsea are used to down to the somewhat grubbier charm of Norwood but that becomes a strength on days like these, and in front of a stadium that has not been this loud since Palace emphatically secured their Premier League status with a 4-0 win over Hull in the final home game of last season, they held on to a 2-1 win here to a backdrop of constant noise.

Chelsea dominated much of the second half and a ten-minute period after their 18th-minute equaliser. That goal, headed home by Tiemoue Bakayoko, had come from nothing with three white shirts outnumbered two-to-one by Palace defenders. But the Eagles’ fragile confidence was shattered and it took some time to rebuild.

Curiously, after impressing so much with their attacking in the early exchanges, what restored Palace’s spark with the scores level was a last-ditch block from Joel Ward, a defender told very plainly by Frank de Boer that he wasn’t good enough but sufficient here to prevent Eden Hazard - quiet on the day - from scoring at the last possible moment.

From that Palace rebuilt and regrew, as they have had to in many ways over the past month, and took the lead as time ticked down on the first period.

It all began with Mamadou Sakho on a day when much of the good play Palace put together had done so. The Frenchman probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves as a ball-player but Palace are counting points not compliments these days. Sakho strolled forward in possession again and failed to find Zaha but regained the ball, this time picking his man in the Bermuda Triangle between Davide Zappacosta, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta. Wiggling through in that way he does, Zaha found himself one-on-one with Courtois and curled the ball inside the far post.


Had he been fully fit he probably would have had more. His legs clearly escaped him on two breakaway opportunities late in proceedings, so out of puff that his decision-making was affected. But he was still not replaced, Palace’s most vital outlet and emblematic superstar was too valuable, even at 60%.

And so the last act of this production would play out in the usual way; backs to the wall, hearts in mouths and, eventually, joy unbound. Had Patrick van Aanholt tucked a rebound into an empty net after Zaha’s shot was parried then it needn’t have been such a palpitating finish. Had Zaha been fully fit he probably would have completed the job himself.

But the whos, whats and whys didn’t matter so much on the whistle here. The points did. The goals did and, now, the hope does.

If we are honest, nobody expects Crystal Palace to survive in the Premier League this season and, looking at the maths, you can see why.

But there were 26,000 people at Selhurst Park today who saw plenty of reason to believe. And Wilfried Zaha is only one part of that.


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Mail:

Crystal Palace 2-1 Chelsea: Eagles secure shock first victory of the season as Cesar Azpilicueta's own goal and Wilfried Zaha's strike stuns the champions

By Kieran Gill for The Mail on Sunday

They're Crystal Palace, and they score when they want. After seven successive losses, Selhurst Park's supporters seized the opportunity to sing a song they had all but forgotten.

Not only did Roy Hodgson's striker-less side get their first goal of the season, they got two — against the champions in Antonio Conte's Chelsea. No longer goalless, no longer pointless.

They are officially off the mark, five months to the day since they last scored and inflicted a defeat in the Premier League. Maybe they aren't dead, after all.

For Conte and Chelsea, this felt like Sod's law. They had to be the ones to be beaten by the team that could not win. They had to concede twice against the side that could not score.

They were without Alvaro Morata and N'Golo Kante for this trip across the Thames but that should not have resulted in them being second-best all afternoon.

Palace went into this game having been thumped 5-0 and 4-0 by title chasers in Manchester City and Manchester United respectively. Chelsea have lost ground.

Conte was not happy with either of the goals his side conceded in south London.

The first will not grace the contenders' list for goal of the season but was crucial for Palace's confidence after a Yohan Cabaye shot scrappily hit off Cesar Azpilicueta and went in.

Palace chairman Steve Parish had called on the footballing gods to give them the rub of the green in his pre-match programme notes. They got it there and then.

The second was down to the brilliance of Wilfried Zaha, who was appearing for the first time since August 12. He beat Azpilicueta and Davide Zappacosta, then produced the type of finish that Palace had been missing all season.

It gave them a lead they would restore on the stroke of half-time after Tiemoue Bakayoko had levelled. How Palace have missed Zaha and his X-factor.


Speaking afterwards, Zaha said: 'It's a dream, managing to beat Chelsea at home. Definitely, this is the start of a fightback — now we've got more confidence we can start to climb up the table.

'I'm so tired but it was all worth it for the win. We had to win.'

The white shirts of Chelsea were on the back foot from the off. After 630 minutes of not scoring this season, Palace came close to righting that wrong through Zaha almost immediately.

Andros Townsend scampered up the left wing after wrong-footing defender David Luiz and crossed to Zaha. He found space to shoot but keeper Thibaut Courtois kept it goal-less.

The Premier League champions were all over the place and Palace got what they deserved — a goal.

Jeffrey Schlupp played in Townsend, who cut the ball back for Cabaye. He chested it down and fumbled it beyond Courtois via a deflection off Azpilicueta. It was far from pretty. Did Palace care? Not one bit.

Then, a kick in the teeth for the home side. From their first chance, Chelsea equalised.

Cesc Fabregas floated a corner over, Bakayoko lost his marker, Patrick van Aanholt, and headed beyond Julian Speroni. The defending was dire.


It was heading for half-time when Zaha decided to celebrate his comeback with a brilliantly taken goal.

Mamadou Sakho slid the ball through before Zaha weaved between Zappacosta and Azpilicueta to slide it beyond Courtois. It was Palace 2, Chelsea 1 at the break.

Zaha's strike sent Hodgson wild in the dugout. Finally, his team had scored not once, but twice. What's that saying about buses again?

The omens weren't good for Chelsea. They had lost six of their previous seven previous Premier League games when trailing at half-time under Conte.


They had the crossbar shaking soon after the start of the second half when Fabregas unleashed a shot from 30 yards.

You could sense the nervousness in the crowd. Palace were sitting back, trying to park the bus. It felt risky, with them relying on counter-attacks to get out of their own half.

As a last throw of the dice, Conte threw on Charly Musonda, the youngster who turns 21 on Sunday who had ranted on social media about a lack of opportunities. He had his chance, but it wasn't to be.

Finally, in their search for a Premier League point or goal, Palace succeeded at the eighth time of asking. They're still bottom, but the Eagles have landed.


CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Speroni 7; Ward 7.5, Dann 8, Sakho 8, Van Aanholt 6.5; McArthur 8 (Fosu-Mensah 85), Cabaye 8 (Riedewald 86), Milivojevic 7.5, Schlupp 7.5 (Puncheon 75, 6); Zaha 9, Townsend 8.5

Subs not used: Tomkins, Kaikai, Sako, Henry

Goals: Azpilicueta (11og), Zaha (45)

Booked: Dann, Milivojevic

Manager: Roy Hodgson 7


CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 5.5; Azpilicueta 5, Luiz 5.5, Cahill 5.5; Moses 6 (Zappacosta 40, 5), Fabregas 6, Bakayoko 6, Alonso 5.5; Willian 4.5 (Musonda 65, 5.5), Batshuayi 4 (Pedro 57, 6), Hazard 5

Subs not used: Caballero, Rudiger, Christensen, Scott

Goals: Bakayoko (18)

Booked: Bakayoko

Manager: Antonio Conte 5.5

Referee: Andre Marriner 6

Man of the match: Wilfried Zaha