Crystal Palace analysis: Wilfred Zaha and Andros Townsend can hurt Tottenham but Roy Hodgson must act quicker

1/20
Giuseppe Muro4 November 2018

Crystal Palace had themselves to blame as Chelsea overcame a tough start to run out 3-1 winners at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Andros Townsend had cancelled out Alvaro Morata's opener, only for more slack defending to allow the striker to finish from a tight angle before Pedro put the result beyond doubt.

Palace remain 14th with eight points, falling to their seventh loss in their opening 11 games.

Giuseppe Muro was at Stamford Bridge to assess the key talking points...

AFP/Getty Images

Reasons to be cheerful

Palace did well at Stamford Bridge and Roy Hodgson will not be too disheartened despite the defeat.

The Eagles matched Chelsea for three-quarters of the match and looked dangerous on the break through Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend. Playing Max Meyer and James McArthur wide with Cheikhou Kouyate and Luka Milivojevic in the middle worked well in midfield.

Palace looked solid before Chelsea’s quality eventually shone through in the second half. But if Palace play like this then they will make life difficult for Tottenham and Manchester United in their next two games.

REUTERS

Zaha and Townsend work well

It was always going to be tough ask against an unbeaten Chelsea side but Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend again linked up well as the makeshift forward two for Palace.

Their pace caused Chelsea real problems throughout. Palace now need Townsend to build on his goal at Stamford Bridge to help the goalscoring burden on Zaha.

If Palace can keep their front two fit, then they should be fine this season.

AFP/Getty Images

Substitutions changed the game

Chelsea’s double substitution to bring on Eden Hazard and Mateo Kovacic after 64 minutes changed the game.

The Blues scored two goals within six minutes to take the game away from Palace, while Roy Hodgson waited until 71 minutes when the Eagles were 3-1 down before making his first change.

The options available to Chelsea are much stronger than the ones available to Hodgson - but could the Palace manager have turned to his bench earlier?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in