Chelsea continued their fine form so far this season, Frank Lampard’s exciting young side beating Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace 2-0 Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
Today’s London Derby took on all an altogether predictable pattern right from the off, with Chelsea starting brightly and dominating possession, but Palace’s well-drilled defensive set up making it extremely difficult to create clear cut chances.
Chelsea would have to wait until the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time to create their best chance, only to see their former captain Gary Cahill brilliantly block down Willian’s close-range effort.
However, it was always going to be tough for the Eagles to keep as good an attacking team as Chelsea out, and their resistance was finally broken five minutes after the break, with Blues striker Tammy Abraham finishing smartly after a beautiful flicked through ball by skipper for the day Willian.
Only @ArjenRobben got to 10 Premier League goals for Chelsea at a younger age than @tammyabraham ⚡ pic.twitter.com/Jw2TOfqlf
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 9, 2019
£57 million signing Cristian Pulisic looked razor-sharp all game and Captain America would seal the win for the Blues with a close-range header, the youngster’s fifth goal in his last three Premier League outings.
Saturday’s strike sees 22-year-old Abraham move to joint top of the scoring charts alongside Jamie Vardy, but speaking afterwards the England international gave the hugely predictable and boring response that his side getting the three points was all that mattered.
“The most important thing was we got the three points,” Abraham told BT Sport.
Similarly, Leicester laid down a significant marker in the race to finish in the Premier League’s top four by beating Arsenal 2-0 to move nine points ahead of the sixth-placed Gunners.
Jamie Vardy broke the deadlock in the 68th minute with his ninth goal in as many games against the Gunners, finishing a slick Leicester move involving Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes.
James Maddison then secured Leicester’s win seven minutes later with a fine strike into the bottom corner to send the Foxes second in the table, five points behind league leaders Liverpool, who play Manchester City, live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
The defeat increases the heat on under-fire Arsenal head coach Unai Emery, whose position at the Emirates Stadium has come under intense pressure in recent weeks.
The Gunners, who are down to sixth in the table – eight points behind fourth-place – are now without a win in their last four Premier League matches and the speculation surrounding Emery’s position is sure to continue heading into the international break.
