MATCH REPORT Christian Pulisic kept up his impressive form for Chelsea since the restart of the Premier League with a well-struck goal to help his team beat Crystal Palace 3-2 and maintain its push for Champions League qualification. Click here for the full report.
FULLTIME Chelsea manages to hold on and takes all three points. It was an end-to-end game and Palce will be disappointed about not taking anyhing from that game.
90' + 6' Zouma with a crunching last-ditch tackle on Benteke! The striekr had all the time in the world after getting free of the Chelsea defence but the Frenchman slid in with intent and stopped that attack.
90' + 5' Palace hits the woodwork! Dann heads Zaha's cross across the face of the goal and it bounces back off the post!
90' + 2' On the counter, Willian smacks his shot into the chest of Guaita. That'd would've ended the contest if it was on either side of the keeper.
90' Five minutes added at the end of the second half.
90' Pulisic wriggles past challenges down the left, cuts back inside and dinks a ball across the box to Willian, whose first-time volley is blocked by Van Aanholt.
89' Willian runs into the box, but his shoot/cross takes a deflection and falls to Abraham. With all the time in the world to pick his spot, the striker manages to send it well wide.
89' Substitution for Palace: Milivojevic is replaced by Meyer.
86' Willian runs at the Palace defence. Abraham's run away from the center drags defenders with him and the Brazilian finds Mount, whose low shot is parried by Guaita.
84' Chelsea with most of the possession now. The players are happy to pass across the pitch and control the pace of the game.
80' Changes for both teams. Townsend and McCarthy replace Ayew and McArthur for Palace. Jorginho replaces Gilmour for Chelsea.
77' McArthur crosses to Benteke. The striker is backing into Zouma, falls down and asks for a penalty. The referee isn't interested in that.
72' GOAL! BENTEKE SCORES AT THE OTHER END! That’s his first goal at Selhurst Park since April 2018.
Kouyate and McArthur combine down the left and find Van Aanholt down the left. The left-back runs into the box, drops his shoulder to get past Azpilicueta and passes across the face of the goal where Benteke turns it in.
71'GOAL! TAMMY ABRAHAM SCORES. That's his 16th of the season.
Chelsea with a quick counter. Loftus-Cheek races down the middle, draws Dann and Sakho out of position before chipping the ball to Abraham, who shots across Guaita into the bottom corner.
68' Time for a water break and both teams are on an equal footing on the pitch now. On the scoreboard, the Blues still lead 2-1.
66' Loftus-Cheek is released down the left by Mount the pass is a little behind him and he can’t take control of it like he would've liked.
65' Double substution for Chelsea. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham replace Giroud and Barkley. Like-for-like changes from Lampard.
61' Milivojevic is good to continue after some treatment.
60' Play is stopped as Milivojevic is down on the floor clutching his head.
54' Good cross from Reece James. Giroud makes the connection but the ball sails just over the bar.
52' Barkley sends a fantastic diagonal ball to Giroud from the right. The Frenchman, just inside the box on the left, attempts to cushion a header to Pulisic but the linesman's flag is up for offside.
51' Van Aanholt's shot from 25 yards smacks Willian straight in his face. He's down holding his face but looks good to carry on.
48' Chelsea quickly on multiple attacks at the start of this half. James runs down the right wing and his low cross is blocked by a diving Sakho.
46' Palace gets the second half started.
HALFTIME Chelsea goes into the break with a 2-1 lead. Hodgson's halftime talk is made easier by Zaha's stunning striker. Can Palace make a comeback or will Chelsea take all three points? We'll find out in the next 45 minutes.
45' + 4' Pulisic wins a freekick near the left corner flag with seconds left in the half. Mount takes it but it is cleared with ease.
45' + 1' Milivojevic's ball is headed towards goal by Benteke but it is straight at Kepa, who makes no mistake catching it.
45' There will be a minimum of four added minutes.
40' Zaha's goal has injected some life into Palace's passing as Chelsea is being more cautious with its attacks now.
36' Milivojevic picks up a yellow card after he brings down Pulisic with a cynical tackle from behind. Took one for the team there.
35' GOAL! Zaha pulls one back.
Zaha picks up the ball in the middle of the pitch and fires in a beauty from more than 30 yards out. Kepa was diving but it fizzed past him before he could stretch fully. A stunning strike that!
32' Pulisic runs at the Palace defence this time and finds Willian in space, whose first-time shot is well saved by Guaita.
30' To win this game, Palce has to do someithing it hasn't done all season: score more than two goals in a match.
27' GOAL! PULISIC SCORES!
Palace loses the ball high up the pitch. Willian combines with Giroud to start Chelsea's attack. The Brazilian runs across thebox and finds Pulisic on the left, who takes a touch towards the goal and fires the ball into the back of the net.
That's his ninth goal of the season and his third since the restart. He also scored in the reverse fixture in November.
25' At the cooling break, Chelsea is comfortable with the lead. Hodgson is furiosuly talking to his players on the touchline, starting with Van Aanholt.
STAT: At home, Palace has scored only three goals in the first-half this season.
20' Pulisic wins a corner from which Kouyate starts a counter-attack. Chelsea regains possession and Gilmour tries to start Chelsea's counter. Nothing comes from it but it has been an end-to-end contest so far.
18' That goal has seen Chelsea settle in. Crystal Palace doing most of the chasing as Chelsea players begin to find their passing rhythm.
13' Barkley takes it instead and the low shot takes a deflection and Chelsea gets a corner. Nothing comes from it.
12' Barkley is brought down outside the box to stop a quick counter-attack. Milivojevic disagrees but that was the right call. 30 yeard out and Willian looks eager.
STAT: Palace has won only twice after conceding first this season: both times against West Ham.
10' CLOSE! Willian curls in from a corner and Zouma rises above everyone but nods the ball just wide.
8' Substution for Crystal Palace: Cahill is replaced by Mamadou Sakho.
6' GOAL! OLIVIER GIROUD PUTS CHELSEA AHEAD.
Willian ran down the right wing with Gary Cahill chasing him. The ex-Chelsea defender stops the chases and crashes to the ground holding his hamstring, giving Willian room to run into the box and pick his pass. Giroud was free in the middle and convers the low pass.
4' Palace on the front foot early on in the half. Good pressing keeps Chelsea players from executing quick passes across the pitch.
2' Kepa with a horrible clearance. The ball falls to McArthur and the midfielder's long-range effort goes wide. Che Adams would've scored that.
1' WE HAVE KICKFOFF! Chelsea gets the game underway.
— Teams are out and we are minutes away from the start.
— Stat pack
Chelsea has won its last four games against Crystal Palace, including a 2-0 victory in November's reverse fixture.
Barkley has been directly involved in eight goals from his last 10 starts across all competitions.
Giroud has scored four goals in his last seven Premier League games for Chelsea - more than he had netted in his previous 38 appearances.
Cesar Azpilicueta makes his 380th appearance for Chelsea, which puts him level 14th on the all-time club list.
Since the league restarted, Gary Cahill has had more shots on target than any other Crystal Palace player - registering three of its seven attempts on goal.
Palace has recorded just four victories in 21 previous Premier League matches against Chelsea: Drawn 2 and Lost 15.
— Starting XIs
Crystal Palace: Guaita; Ward, Cahill, Dann, Van Aanholt; Ayew, McArthur, Milivojevic, Kouyate, Zaha; Benteke
Chelsea: Kepa; James, Christensen, Zouma, Azpilicueta; Barkley, Gilmour, Mount; Willian, Giroud, Pulisic
— Form guide
Crystal Palace: WWWLLL
Chelsea: DWWWLW
— Team news
Crystal Palace: Christian Benteke returned to the side at the weekend and Palace has no fresh injury concerns since. James McCarthy and Cheikhou Kouyate are pusing for a place in the starting 11. Martin Kelly, Jeffrey Schlupp and James Tomkins remain sidelined.
Chelsea: N'Golo Kante picked up a hamstring issue during the win over Watford and will miss tonight's game. Mateo Kovacic and Fikayo Tomori are also unavailable, though both are close to making a full return.
— Chelsea only has a two-point cushion to Manchester United in fifth, which means the margin for error is very slim. However, with six wins from the last seven games across competitions there's a consistency settling into Frank Lampard's side - one it needs to maintain for the rest of the campaign.
Palace, on the other hand, has struggled to fins the back of the net this season. Only Norwich City has scored fewer goals than it. It has drawn blanks in its last three games, losing them 8-0 on aggregate. Roy Hodgson's side has a tough task tonight.
— Crystal Palace hosts a Chelsea side that's chasing Champions League football.
It is a London derby that the Blues will want to win, unlike the debacle at West Ham. With Manchester United within touching distance in the table, they will want to take all three points at Selhurst Park tonight.
The host goes into the match after lost its last three games, whereas Chelsea bounced back with a win against Watford on Saturday.
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