Chelsea’s title ambitions were left with a heavy blow after Jose Mourinho’s men crashed to a shock 0-1 defeat at the hands of relegation threatened Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday. John Terry’s own goal gave the Eagles a much needed win as Tony Pulis masterminded his team’s famous win over the Blues. Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni was in inspired form too as the Argentine shot stopper single handedly kept his team in the game with a string of superb saves in a sunny afternoon in London. Here are Chelsea’s player ratings from the encounter.
Petr Cech: Pundits claimed that the Czech International was to be blamed for John Terry’s own goal having come out from his post. The Chelsea number one was spared by the post and latched into some great efforts from Palace’s front line to keep the score to a respectable one.
Rating: 2/5
Branislav Ivanovic: The Serbian had a poor game given his standards, was strangely way off colour and his crosses from the right flank hardly found any takers. Defensively his lack of marking space allowed Palace to exploit the full width of the pitch.
Rating: 1.5/5
Gary Cahill: Yet again a superb display from the English International and going by the stats from Squawka, Cahill made 12 clearances, won six of seven aerial battles and four out of five tackles. Unbelievable, yet in a losing cause.
Rating: 3.5/5
John Terry: The Chelsea captain’s own goal was the difference between the two sides at the end and was largely troubled in the air thanks to Cameron Jerome, the latter who was an imposing presence in the air.
Rating: 1.5/5
Cesar Azpilicueta: The Spaniard completed 96% of his passes, but to Chelsea’s surprise, he didn’t have a good game according to his standard with hardly winning his one on one tackles.
Rating: 2/5
Nemanja Matic: Had an average game but with Palace gaining the lead he was caught time and again in the middle of the park as the Serbian tried to barge forward to help his team mates in attacks up front.
Rating: 2.5/5
Frank Lampard: The England star was more on the pitch as an attacking force rather than picking his runs from the middle of the park. As a result was unable to influence the game as he would have liked.
Rating: 2/5
David Luiz: He went off injured in the break and didn’t provide anything worth mentioning in his stay on the pitch.
Rating: 1.5/5
Eden Hazard: As the looks of it, if you can stop Eden Hazard, Chelse’a attacking verve looks to get pedestrian. A rare bad in the office for the Belgian who had no influence on the pitch.
Rating: 1/5
Andre Schurrle: The German displayed his combative side by winning his individual tackles and making interceptions but lacked in his attacking threat.
Rating: 2.5/5
Fernando Torres: Shame on him, what a poor game for the Spaniard. He did cause Palace problems in his aerial duels but on the overall was pretty average.
Rating: 2/5
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