Chelsea opened their Premier League campaign with a frustrating 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace, despite dominating large spells of the second half and creating several clear chances.
Enzo Maresca’s men struggled to break down Palace’s resolute defense, with missed opportunities from the likes of Marc Cucurella, Trevor Chalobah, Estevão, and Liam Delap proving costly.
Palace, on the other hand, had a brief moment of hope when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick found the net, but VAR intervened, ruling it out after Marc Guehi was judged to have committed an infringement during the play.
It means vital dropped points for the Blues just one game into the Premier League season.
Speaking after the game, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, told Sky Sports, “Obviously not the result we wanted, but I think the boys played well.
“The boys created the chances and at the end of the day it is football. We take the clean sheet and we move on to the next one.
“We had two weeks of a quick pre-season and we got some injuries but the boys showed up and we kept the clean sheet. We have quality on the ball. It was hard to find Moises [Caicedo] and Enzo [Fernandez] with the ball because Crystal Palace were holding a lot in midfield and with the dry pitch as well.”
On Eberechi Eze’s disallowed free-kick, he said, “Moises gets pushed into the gap and that’s why I couldn’t see at all and the ball goes over my head so that’s why it has to be a foul, 100%.”
He attributed their goalless game to having a short pre-season due to the Club World Cup.
“It was easy to come back but we feel the fatigue that we didn’t have a long time to recover but it is football and you just have to take care of your body and not do too much.”
