1. It is games like this that set Chelsea apart as deserving champions
There has been a trend in this second-half of the season as Chelsea more frequently found themselves second best in games. The first-half of this encounter was no different.
Still, Jose Mourinho’s men found something to hold on to and they defended their lead until the final whistle.
The Blues’ title rivals have had moments when they were flying and winning matches with good football but the key difference has been when the opposition played better. The likes of Arsenal, the Manchester clubs and even Liverpool all fared badly in their tough games.
2. This defeat will hurt Alan Pardew despite the quality of the Blues
Pardew had a lot of good games against Chelsea including Newcastle’s 2-1 victory over the Blues at the start of the season. This game promised to go the same way until Eden Hazard won a controversial penalty.
Pardew simply labelled the penalty a “nice piece of luck” in his post-match interview but the ambitious Palace boss would have wanted to leave Stamford Bridge with something. Especially when his game plan seemed to work better than Mourinho’s.
3. Julian Speroni’s penalty save makes Hazard’s next penalty an interesting one
Hazard had a perfect record from the spot until this game. He shows a lot of faith in the hard technique of focusing on the keeper rather than the ball. This time the keeper came out on top.
Mourinho will probably keep Hazard as his penalty taker because his record is still phenomenal. The interesting bit is that Hazard knows that keepers work on potential penalty takers during the week. Now that Speroni’s tactic worked against Hazard, will the midfielder persist with this technique or revert to a more conventional technique?
4. This was a good result for Diego Costa’s health
Mourinho mentioned in his press conference in midweek that if Chelsea failed to complete the job in this tie then he may risk Costa against Liverpool next time out. That meant that Costa could have been involved against the Reds even if he was not fully fit.
Now that the title race is over, Mourinho is likely to afford the striker as much time as he needs to fully recover from his recurring hamstring problem. Hopefully that should be enough to make Costa’s frustrating injury problem a thing of the past.
5. Wilfried Zaha can take a lot of positives ahead of a special game for him
Zaha was among the Palace’s better players. He was the reason Branislav Ivanovic got booked inside the opening half-hour as the full-back struggled to contain the English winger. In the second-half, Zaha was less effective but that was inevitable as he was against Cesar Azpilicueta, who is arguably the best man-marker in the division.
In any case, Zaha gave enough to be happy with his personal performance in this encounter. Manchester United are next and Louis van Gaal showed no faith in the winger. Zaha will definitely be eager to play a key role and he could have a good afternoon against Antonio Valencia, who is likely to continue as an emergency right-back.
