Crystal Palace woes continue with Canvot calamity, as Estêvão produces more magic for Chelsea

Crystal Palace (0) 1 v Chelsea (1) 3

Estêvão 34

João Pedro 50

Fernández (pen) 64

Richards 88

By a Capital Football reporter at Selhurst Park

Premier League

Matchweek 23

An Estêvão Willian wonder goal set Chelsea on the way to a comfortable victory at Selhurst Park, with a second half penalty and then a red card contributing to Crystal Palace being comprehensively crushed.

Jaydee Canvot crucially suffered a nightmare afternoon, as he gave away the ball to Estêvão for the vital opening goal, failed to play offside in the build-up to the second score, and was penalised for handball to concede the spot kick for Chelsea.

The teenaged French under-21 international, signed at the start of the season from Toulouse, was substituted straight after the penalty incident, before Adam Wharton picked up two yellow cards in six minutes to leave Palace down to 10 men.

The Eagles are now winless in 11 matches in all competitions, without a victory in eight Premier League games, and also having not beaten any visitors to Selhurst Park for eight encounters stretching back to early November.

In contrast, Liam Rosenior’s first two and a half weeks as the Chelsea head coach have brought four successes in five matches, maintaining 100% winning records with two victories out of two in the Premier League and likewise in away games.

This contest was effectively decided by two chances, one for each team, in both cases their solitary attempt on target in the first half, with the added similarity of defensive mistakes giving a dangerous opposition forward a clear run on goal.

Just seven minutes into the match, Benoît Badiashile clumsily lost the ball to Ismaïla Sarr, who put Jean-Philippe Mateta through, but Palace’s top scorer failed to finish this time, as Robert Sánchez made an excellent save with his right leg.

11 minutes before half-time, with the Eagles attacking down the left, Canvot carelessly played a pass back, which Estêvão anticipated and intercepted. The Chelsea winger still had to dribble from halfway, pursued alongside by Tyrick Mitchell.

Estêvão cleverly angled his run, from right to left, to hold off the wing-back’s efforts to stop him, and then beautifully shot left-footed back across Dean Henderson to wrong-foot Palace’s new club captain.

The goal ended Estêvão’s sequence of 11 Premier League games without scoring, and he was also instrumental in Chelsea doubling their advantage straight after the break, with a piece of individual brilliance to provide the assist for João Pedro.

Out on the right, Estêvão lobbed a ball over the covering defenders to put his fellow Brazilian into space, kept onside by Canvot not maintaining a rigid back line, before cutting inside for a powerful strike in between Henderson’s legs.

Having gone into the lead with their first meaningful attack of the match, Chelsea went two up by managing the same in the second half, only taking far less time to do so as they established themselves in a game-winning position.

That it was achieved by Estêvão and João Pedro had some symmetry, since they had made their Premier League debuts for Chelsea together against Crystal Palace on the opening weekend of the season, before both scoring in the reverse fixture.

The two boys from Brazil were integrally involved again in the Blues going 3-0 in front, as Reece James played a one-two on the right wing with Estêvão, whose return pass perfectly set up his captain’s cross.

Henderson could only tip the ball away as far as João Pedro, who followed up his left-footed goal with a sharp right-footed shot blocked by Canvot. Although the referee, Darren England, waved play on, VAR intervened and sent him to the pitchside monitor.

The referee review resulted controversially in a verdict of “accidental handball”, but nevertheless a penalty was given for denying a goalscoring opportunity, despite the ball deflecting off the defender’s right hip onto his right arm.

The initial contact looked to have been enough to potentially send the shot wide anyway, Canvot’s hand was not in an unnatural position, and in fact he was trying to move it behind his back at the time of the contact.

Crystal Palace understandably were extremely aggrieved, and the Holmesdale End chanted “It’s not football anymore”, but Enzo Fernández stepped up to drill the penalty into the net before Henderson could even move.

The situation became even worse for the Eagles as Wharton twice in quick succession fouled Moisés Caicedo to find himself dismissed. The Chelsea midfielder had started their personal battle with a couple of fiery first half tackles.

Caicedo was booked for his opening challenge in the 20th minute, and may have been lucky to not get another yellow card for the next one, with a Pedro Neto stamp on Ismaïla Sarr also being missed by the officials.

Yet Palace unexpectedly and very encouragingly rallied late on, having switched to a 5-3-1 formation. With two minutes to go, Chris Richards marked his 100th appearance for the club with a goal, when a Will Hughes corner produced a goalmouth scramble.

Richards’ header into the net was a reward for the home side’s spirited recovery in adversity, which will cheer up their fans far more than the consolation goal itself.

Attendance: 25,163