Chelsea lost at home for the first time since September 2016 on Saturday as Crystal Palace stunned Stamford Bridge with a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
It looked like business as usual when Cesc Fabregas turned home Eden Hazard’s low cross to give Chelsea a fifth-minute lead, but Crystal Palace quickly turned it around and were ahead inside the first quarter of an hour.
Wilfried Zaha levelled the scores, before setting up Christian Benteke, who beat Thibaut Courtois with this bold lobbed finish.
Christian. Benteke. That’s a £30m goal, worth it just for that pic.twitter.com/pyx1ILyONA
— Benj (@Beniesta_) April 1, 2017
Chelsea bossed the rest of the match, as the stats at the bottom of this article perfectly illustrate, but Palace came very close to scoring a third on the break, only for Courtois to thwart Zaha with his feet.
This defeat cuts Chelsea’s lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points, after Tottenham Hotspur won 2-0 at Burnley.
Player ratings:
Chelsea: Courtois 6; Azpilicueta 6, Luiz 6, Cahill 6; Pedro 7, Kante 6, Matic 5, Alonso 7; Fabregas 8, Costa 6, Hazard 7.
Crystal Palace: Hennessy 9; Ward 6, Tomkins 7, Sakho 7, Schlupp 7; Milivojevic 6, Cabaye 7, Puncheon 6, Zaha 9, Townsend 7; Benteke 8.
Chelsea subs: Loftus-Cheek 6, Willian 6, Batshuayi 6.
Crystal Palace subs: Kelly 6, Dann 6, Delaney 7.
Chelsea 1-2 Crystal Palace but let’s not lose our heads (leave that to the deluded Spurs fans).
Look at the stats??
It was a blip. Chill?? pic.twitter.com/bb5JhbPr9Y
— Chelsea News App (@CFCNewsApp) April 1, 2017