Chelsea reclaimed fourth spot in the Premier League with a 4-1 win at Selhurst Park that met with little serious resistance from start to finish. More importantly, perhaps, in the longer term, they did so with Kai Havertz playing a fine, incisive hand as the central attacker.
On a freezing afternoon in south London Chelsea’s £70m summer signing was all clever movement, cute touches and even – of all things – a well-taken goal.
“Kai will never be our emotional leader and we don’t expect him to be,” Thomas Tuchel said afterwards. “But we need to see his quality, he needs to be in the high positions, he needs to show he can do better. There is still room to improve in finishing, he can be more ruthless.”
If Tuchel refused to be drawn on his superlatives, it is worth remembering these things become more manageable when the opposition barely turn up until the game is gone. And this was a startlingly one-sided game in its opening hour, as Jorginho ran the midfield and the blue shirts swarmed all over their hosts.
Tuchel rested Reece James here, with Callum Hudson-Odoi in at right wing-back. He also resisted some diffuse pressure to reinstall a “proper” central striker and persisted with Havertz in the false-ish 9 role. It is not hard to see why. Tuchel wants above all to control the ball and has a Pep-like yearning for technicians, ball-players, midfielders. Plus, of course, the club really do need to get something out of Havertz, whose ceiling is extremely high, his price tag even more so.
Roy Hodgson stuck with the team that drew with Everton on Monday, with Wilfried Zaha close to Christian Benteke in attack.
Not that it made much difference as Palace began like a team startled to find themselves taking place in an actual live football match.
Chelsea dominated from the kick-off, pouring relentlessly down the right flank. After eight minutes they were ahead. A succession of blue‑shirted attacks saw the ball arrive at the feet of Havertz 10 yards out. He slid it neatly into a corner.
Palace looked stunned, a team sill gasping for air. And two minutes later it was 2-0. Havertz gave the final pass, but this was a wonderful team move, the light blue shirts zipping the ball around on the left, Havertz pausing just long enough to slide his pass into Christian Pulisic’s run. The finish ripped into the roof of the net. Full report here
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