On a very foggy day in London, Antonio Conte made just 2 changes to his Chelsea side to face Crystal Palace as Nemanja Matic came in to replace Cesc Fabregas and the fit again Eden Hazard came back into the side to replace Pedro. In a game which was a very tight affair there really was not too much to choose between the two sides as they both failed to create much. In fact Palace actually shaded the possession stats as they had 53% of the ball. As a testament to how little Chelsea created, it was the 43rd minute before Chelsea actually had an effort on target but fortunately the chance fell to the clinical Diego Costa who leapt between two Palace defenders to meet man of the match Cesar Azpilicueta’s fine cross to head the only goal of the game. Chelsea went to the half-time whistle with a 1-0 lead and the goal demonstrated the value of Costa and having a deadly striker in your side.
Chelsea did come very close to doubling their lead midway through the second half. They received a free-kick on the right of the 18 yard box and up stepped Marcus Alonso who had his shooting boots on all day and was one of Chelsea’s best performers. The Spaniard lined up the free-kick and struck it beautifully with his left foot getting it up and over the wall, thoroughly beating Wayne Hennessy in the Palace goal only for the ball to rattle off the underside of the crossbar and to bounce away to safety. The closest Crystal Palace came to scoring was when Jason Puncheon headed wide from a good second-half chance and he also had a decent free-kick which just went over the bar in the first half.
With the win over Palace, Chelsea registered their 11th win in a row and equalled their all-time record-winning run which they achieved back in September 2009 when they last won 11 in a row. If the Blues beat Bournemouth on Boxing Day on Monday 26th December they will set a new record for consecutive wins. One negative for Chelsea is that Diego Costa had gone 11 games without a booking but after getting a yellow card at Selhurst Park on Saturday he will now be suspended for the boxing day match. N’Golo Kante also got his 11th booking on the season and will also serve a one game suspension with Costa.
Speaking after the match, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was clearly very happy with the win and had this to say as reported by the BBC:
“The run is fantastic. Congratulations to my players, not me. I am pleased for them because they deserve this. I see every single moment, every day. It is commitment, the way we prepare for the game and the way they fight. I am pleased for the fans who are fantastic home and away and who push us.
“We can improve though. You can always improve in different aspects. I am pleased with this level we have reached, but it is important to understand we are only at the 17th game in the season. We must not look at the table. We must not look at our rivals and continue working hard ourselves.
“We have reached a good balance between offence and defence. In some moments, our goalkeeper has been decisive. We dominated the last game but Thibaut made a fantastic save. After last season when he conceded lots of goals, this season is very good for him. We attack and defend as a team.”
So Conte has his Chelsea team playing excellent football these days as they have only conceded 2 goals since their last league loss to Arsenal back on September 26th and as we know they have won all 11 games since then. In this kind of form, it is hard to see Chelsea losing anytime soon.