October 19 2014

Bit of a tiff as Chelsea's Cesar Azpilicueta gets his marching orders.

After a two-week break, it was back to business at Selhurst Part with the visit of Premier League leaders, Chelsea. Jamesey joined the throng to see the Blues take three points in a 2-1 victory.

Every club has its ambitions and Chelsea, under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, aim to win the Premier League, the Champions League and any other trophies that happen to be around for the taking.

Crystal Palace, currently bossed by Neil Warnock, hope to end their campaign in 17th place or above next May - a somewhat more prosaic aspiration.

Both managers are enjoying a second spell at their respective clubs and, according to what you hear and read, both have a healthy respect and admiration for each other.

As you would expect, a near capacity crowd of 24,451 eagerly assembled for one of the season's most highly anticipated matches in south London (Oct 18).

Last season this clash ended with a victory for the Eagles, delightfully provided by a John Terry own goal, so Palace's ever-optimistic supporters were hoping for another win despite being cast in the role of total underdogs.

And according to Mourinho, Chelsea's multi-million £ assembly of international stars are far more resolute than last season. But he would say that wouldn't he.

The game kicked off on an unusually balmy mid-October afternoon and it didn't take long for the Blues to put large amounts of money where their mouths were with an expertly taken goal from Oscar. The Brazilian sent a banana style free kick past Julian Speroni from 30 yards after only six minutes.

The Eagles were faced with a mountain to climb and, it must be said, struggled to make much of an impression on a classy Chelsea side. The Blues moved the ball intelligently and skilfully and ,sadly, Palace strove manfully to equalise but all too often ended up chasing moonbeams and getting nowhere.

Temperatures were getting high among the players as well as in the weather, and a few minutes from the half-time break, Palace were handed what could have been a lifeline.

The man with a name befitting an Aztec high priest, Cesar Azpilicueta, lunged insanely at a man with a name like a Serbian warlord, Mile Jedinak, and was awarded a red card.

The ever-noisy Place supporters were delirious with joy. Surely a one-man advantage would give their team more of a chance of breaching the class gap, wouldn't it?

But, of course, this is Palace and within three minutes Damien Delaney fouled Loic Remy to earn a second yellow and followed the Chelsea Spaniard down the tunnel.

Shortly after the break, the impressive Cesc Fabregas scored and with a two-goal advantage and a 10-man parity, Chelsea cruised through the second half while the Eagles found it difficult to regain possession.

With 20 minutes to go Wilfried Zaha came on the field much to the crowd's pleasure. But one man, however skilled, does not a winning team make and Wilf, like his team-mates, found it hard to get into the game although his cross did provide Fraizer Campbell - who had come close a couple of times in the first period - with a consolation goal right at the end.

So the match ended at 2-1 to Chelsea although that doesn't really reflect the game as a whole. All the top teams in world club and international football are good at keeping the ball. Chelsea do and Palace tend to be sloppy. The alarming statistic of just over a quarter of the possession in a home game speaks volumes.

You'd have to have been the ultimate optimist to expect to beat the current top team in the nation's football. But a rather limp defeat combined with a poor performance away at Hull two weeks ago are worrying.

Let's hope that we can travel to West Brom next week and show more of the spirit and expertise that served us so well last season.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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