In a comfortable afternoon of football, Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Crystal Palace defended stoutly all afternoon long, but a couple of moments of magic from the Blues were all they needed to pick up a win.
Here’s how the players rated at Stamford Bridge:
Chelsea
Kepa Arrizabalaga – 5 – Had basically nothing to do.
Reece James – 7 – A positive display attacking the right-flank, defended aggressively in order to limit Palace’s attacks down his flank, but struggled 1v1 against Zaha.
Kurt Zouma – 7 – Played well. Coped fairly easily with whatever Palace threw at him.
https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/1193175504851013632
Fikayo Tomori – 7 – A moving brick wall. Nothing phased him, nothing got by him.
Emerson – 6 – Worked hard to provide width. Kept a lid on Andros Townsend.
N’Golo Kanté – 6 – Still not fully up-to-speed after his injury, but a positive display nonetheless.
Mateo Kovacic – 7 – Took control of midfield in Jorginho’s absence. Advanced the ball with the dribble; played some lovely passes as well.
Mason Mount – 6 – Shot every time he saw a sliver of daylight. Worked hard defensively however, making a game-high four blocks.
Willian – 8 – An impressive display (more chances created than anyone on the pitch) capped with an absolutely sublime assist, flicking the ball through for Abraham with his first-touch.
Christian Pulisic's game by numbers vs. Palace:
54 touches
13 touches in opp. box
6 shots
5 take-ons
3 chances created
3 shots on target
2 aerials won
1 goalRewarded with his first Stamford Bridge goal. ? pic.twitter.com/C5K1YMcLPD
— Squawka (@Squawka) November 9, 2019
Christian Pulisic – 8 – Chelsea’s main driving force for the game. Always cutting inside and committing Palace defenders with his skill and shooting. Bagged a second goal with an instinctive headed finish.
Tammy Abraham – 7 – Held out of the game for the first-half but sparked things to life in the second with a nice run and cool finish to open the scoring with his 10th goal of the league season. Received a standing ovation when subbed off.
Substitutes:
Michy Batshuayi (for Abraham 73′) – 5 – Wasted a couple of great chances to score Chelsea’s third with some selfish play.
Callum Hudson-Odoi (for Pulisic 80′) – n/a – Rating text
Billy Gilmour (for Mount 87′) – n/a – Rating text
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Crystal Palace
Vicente Guaita – 6 – Really positive performance from Guaita. Made several saves and could do nothing about the goal.
Joel Ward – 5 – Did okay in the first-half, battling well with Pulisic until he had to go off injured.
James Tomkins – 6 – Mostly solid. Made some crucial interceptions, but missed a fantastic chance to equalise in the second half.
Gary Cahill – 7 – Enormous block at the end of the first half to deny Willian a goal.
Patrick van Aanholt – 6 – Did precious little in attack when Palace needed him to help step up.
Luka Milivojevic – 4 – Didn’t do enough to prevent Chelsea driving through the middle of the pitch.
Cheikhou Kouyate – 5 – Always available to help regain and/or clear the ball, but didn’t do enough in possession.
WWWWWW
??????? Frank Lampard is the first English manager to win six consecutive Premier League games since Alan Pardew in 2012.
The Blues move up to second in the Premier League table ? pic.twitter.com/RvjZYxdHWN
— Coral (@Coral) November 9, 2019
James McArthur – 7 – Battled well to prevent Chelsea advancing up the middle. A one-man army at times with a game-high 5 tackles. Things got a lot easier for Chelsea after he was subbed off with 20 minutes to go.
Andros Townsend – 5 – A non-event.
Wilfred Zaha – 6 – Palace’s danger-man looked capable of hurting Chelsea but just didn’t get the ball enough.
Jordan Ayew – 5 – Isolated.
Substitutes:
Martin Kelly (for Ward 44′) – 5 – Came on in the first-half but struggled to keep a lid on Christian Pulisic.
Jeffrey Schlupp (for McArthur 70′) – 4 – Was introduced to add attacking power and added none.
James McCarthy (for Kouyaté 82′) – n/a – Did little.