Goals from Oscar, Willian and Diego Costa give Chelsea all three points
Chelsea picked up their first win under Guus Hiddink this afternoon as they comfortably saw off Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
It was a rainy and blustery afternoon in London, which caused havoc in the first-half for both teams, but it was the visitors who settled down the quickest and it was they who left with all three points.
Chelsea went into the game on 20-points and near the wrong end of the table, whilst Palace started in seventh looking to close to gap on the teams above them.
Summary
After quite a cagey opening half-an-hour, which saw Eden Hazard limp off with another injury, it was Chelsea who broke the deadlock as Diego Costa pulled the ball back selflessly to Oscar, who simply rolled home into the empty net.
Hiddink‘s side went into the interval with the one-goal advantage, but they only had to wait 15-minutes into the second-half to double their advantage as Willian thumped home from outside the box.
It was the pick of the bunch for Chelsea as the Brazilian picked the ball up on the edge of the box before firing past the helpless Palace ‘keeper.
Six minutes later and it was game over as Costa got himself a deserved goal after Willian’s shot was parried straight to the feet of the Spaniard.
Palace stay seventh after the defeat, but Chelsea move up to 14th in the league.
Match Reaction
Chelsea captain John Terry, taking to Sky Sports: “This was the Chelsea of last year, the football was first class and we kept the ball in tough conditions. A near year, a new start, we just have to keep winning games now. We are delighted and it is the feeling we want.
“Guus has been great since he has come in. It was unfortunate what happened but he has come in and picked everyone up. We are, where we are, we have not dwelled on it. If we can put together a run of games who knows hopefully we can go a long way”
Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink: “Do not go over the top it is the first win after a worrying period with two draws so the team desperately needed the win and it was convincing,
“Everyone knows we have a lot of quality in our team, but sometimes champions have a tendency to be complacent and it can be difficult to get back and then wonder why we were champions.
“There is a long way to go, mathematically the possibility of Champions League is still there. The league is so strong but as long as we play like we did today I will be happy.”
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew had this to say after the game: “It is one of those games where we just wipe our nose and move onto the next game”
“We were not at our strongest today, we were missing key players and could not play our natural game.
“We will be looking at the market in case something comes through. It is important we kick into gear in the second-half of the season. Things did not go our way today and we have to respond and I have every confidence in this group that we will be in and around the top 10.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
