Defence the best form of attack as Chilwell and Zouma send Blues on way to 4-0 over Crystal Palace

By Paul Lagan

Chelsea 4 Crystal Palace 0

Defenders were the stars for Chelsea as the Blues dispatched dour Crystal Palace 4-0 this afternoon at Stamford Bridge.

There were no goals in the first half as the Blues dominated possession, but failed to put sufficient pressure on a disciplined Palace performance.

But it all changed in the second 45 minutes.

Ben Chilwell, the outstanding player on the pitch opened his Chelsea account following his move from Leicester City with a close-range thumper on 50 minutes.

The left-back was provider on 66 minutes as he floated over a perfect left-wing cross and Zouma rose, unchallenged to direct a header past Vincent Guaita.

That header effectively secured all three Premier League points.

A brace of penalties from Jorginho as the Eagles defence made a series of silly errors doubled the scoreline to give Frank Lampard a positive performance ahead of the international break.

The South Londoners switched off their concentration and were punished every time.

Lampard gave first league starts to Chilwell and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. He also started with winger Callum Hudson-Odoi - Christen Pulisic fit enough to be on the bench, but not enough for a full 90 minutes.

Bayern Munich are still eying Hudson-Odoi and the youngster could move to Germany ahead of the transfer deadline on Monday.

Chilwell said: “ It was a brilliant team performance, I’m happy with my performance, we can kick on now.

“There were four great goals and we wanted more, we pressed for the whole 90 minutes.

“We were patient in the first half but we were not creative enough, we have talent up front and the gaffer told us at half-time that have to show it.

“The reason I have come here is to win stuff and we need to work hard to chive that.