John Terry curled tightly into a ball inside the penalty area, put his hands to his ears like a child willing the world away after scoring an own goal that may prove fatal to Chelsea’s hopes of winning the Premier League title.

The haunted look on the face of Stamford Bridge’s most fiercely loyal servant after he headed past his own keeper on 52 minutes suggested he realised that this defeat may have left his beloved Chelsea with too much to do to win the league.

Jose Mourinho’s side remain top of the table and equal on points with Manchester City but Manuel Pellegrini’s side have two games in hand while Liverpool are one point behind and have one game in hand over Chelsea. Mourinho, who has been playing down his side’s title chances all season, suggested it was too big a challenge.

As he trudged off the pitch at Selhurst Park, patting a dejected Gary Cahill on the back, Mourinho offered a sporting gesture of applause to the Crystal Palace fans. He then went into Tony Pulis’s dressing room to congratulate the Palace players for a display of guts, bravery and togetherness. Certain qualities, he later suggested, were absent in some of his own players.

The Portuguese and most others expected Chelsea to return with three points from Saturday’s game. They have played three other London derbies this month and won them all, scoring 13 goals and conceding just one.

They came to Selhurst Park with huge momentum, on the back of a 6-0 thrashing of Arsenal, Mourinho’s biggest victory at Chelsea. Everything signalled that they would at least run Manchester City or Liverpool close for the title.

But some players, Mourinho suggested without mentioning names, did not fancy an afternoon in unglamorous, deepest South London.

Mourinho’s substitutions — usually so inspired failed to have the desired effect. David Luiz went off after a dire opening half, perhaps still feeling the effects of a wild Yannick Bolasie challenge early in the game.

Fernando Torres could have softened the blow when handed a golden opportunity to grab an equaliser in stoppage time. Stuart O’Keefe, perhaps overawed by the prospect of a momentous victory, played a horrendously judged back-pass to ‘keeper Julian Speroni. But Torres – who had little impact all game — lobbed his attempt over the crossbar. Asked to assess the performance of the £50m Spaniard, Mourinho replied: ‘I like to analyse individual performances when I have something good to say.’

Before the game, the stage had been set for referee Lee Mason to take centre stage. Jose Mourinho spent the week telling anyone who would listen his theory that referee Chris Foy’s performance in Chelsea’s defeat to Aston Villa two weeks ago could prove fatal to his side’s title chances.

Meanwhile, Tony Pulis used his programme notes to broadcast his belief that Palace had been unfairly treated by officials in their last two fixtures and professed his hope that the game would not hinge on a refereeing decision. .

It almost did after Gary Cahill twice brought down a man inside the box within three minutes in the first half.

First, he uprooted Cameron Jerome then he hacked down Yannick Bolasie from behind. Twice, referee Lee Mason waved away penalty appeals. The Palace fans felt hard done by. Tony Pulis leapt about and waved his arms in the air, a man possessed by a sense of injustice, while Mourinho jotted an observation in his notepad.

Palace have scored just once in their last five league games and so John Terry leaped in to get them back to scoring ways. He dove in front of a Joel Ward cross bound for the head of Joe Ledley and sent the ball flying past a folorn Petr Cech. The look of horror on the face of the recoiling Mourinho was visible from high in the stands.

Mourinho adjusted his formation in the hunt for an equaliser. He brought off Frank Lampard for Mohamed Salah, who was innefective. Ditto Demba Ba, who came on for Andre Schurrle in the 70th minute.

But this was not just a story of Chelsea mistakes and shortcomings. Mile Jedinak, Jason Puncheon and keeper Julian Speroni were superb.

As Crystal Palace technical coach David Kemp said: ‘You could pick seven, eight or nine star players from our team.

‘This was big for the club but big for players too. ‘We now have nine wins this season which is very credible for a promoted team.’

This first victory over Chelsea in the league for 23 years lifts them fifth from bottom, five points clear of the drop.

—Daily Mail