Antonio Conte’s Chelsea Continue Their EPL Honeymoon With Win Over Crystal Palace.

“Let’s all pack up and go home right now. I just don’t think there are enough teams in the league that have enough to hurt Chelsea at the back.”
“They have Diego Costa who is playing the best football of his career. They get goals, they don’t panic when they go behind, and they have genuine individual game changers,” were the words of former Manchester United striker Andy Cole after Chelsea beat Sunderland on Wednesday.
Antonio Conte’s side did not stop there as they inflicted yet another damage on Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace at the Selhurst Park beating the Eagles for the sixth time in their (Chelsea’s) last seven visits. Although Chelsea wasn’t in their fluid and attacking best, the Blues still found their way into Wayne Hennessey’s net courtesy of Diego Costa who scored his first headed goal since March 2015 and also his 13th goal in the league (17 games ) bettering his last season’s goal tally of 12. This was also Chelsea’s first headed goal this season considering no Chelsea player is yet to score with his head. The win also means Chelsea earned 73 points this calendar year (2016) which is more than any Premier League side. With Pedro rested and Cesc Fabregas returning to the bench, Conte’s side had to grind out a win in the London derby as Palace were composed and disciplined at the back, rarely venturing forward with striker Christian Benteke who is on eight league goals only making one touch in Chelsea’s penalty box in the first half. Going by statistics , Chelsea dominated the match having 13 shots to Palace’s six coupled with their created chances of eight to Palace’s three and their 52% possession to Palace’s 48%.
On the other hand, Costa has shown he is a goal monster as leads the goal scoring chart as well as being involved in 18 of Chelsea’s goals this season : 13 goals , five assists. Conte on his own also made history as he beat Jose Mourinho’s 2014/2015 11 straight league wins thus becoming the first and only Chelsea manager to win 12 straight games in the history of the Premier League.
The bad news for Chelsea is that both Costa and defensive midfield wonder boy N’Golo Kante received their fifth league yellow cards in the game thus ruling them out of the game at home to Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth on Boxing Day.
While Chelsea fans continue to jubilate after going nine points ahead of second placed Liverpool who are yet to play until Monday, one thing they must be reminded is that nothing is won in the Winter as there is still more than 20 games left to play before any team is crowned champions.
Stats powered by Opta.