Chelsea draw blank in Palace stalemate
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—Chelsea suffered a Club World Cup hangover as they were lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace to open their Premier League campaign on Sunday.
Palace were denied an early opener when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick was ruled out by a VAR reivew for Marc Guehi obstructing the Chelsea wall.
New Chelsea signing Estevao came closest to snatching a winner, but the newly-crowned world champions were blunt in attack against a well-organised Palace defence.
The Eagles key duo Guehi and Eze started despite mounting speculation the England internationals are set to join Liverpool and Tottenham respectively.
Eze thought he had opened the scoring with a blistering free-kick that had too much power for Robert Sanchez.
The goal was disallowed for Guehi’s role in creating a gap by man-handling Moises Caicedo into the Chelsea wall.
Chelsea’s demolition of European champions Paris Saint-Germain to win the Club World Cup last month had raised the Blues hopes they can challenge for a first Premier League title since 2017.
Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro shone in the 3-0 win over PSG in New York 35 days ago, but were anonymous as Enzo Maresca had to turn to his bench for inspiration.
Estevao scored against Chelsea at the Club World Cup in his final game for Palmeiras.
The Brazilian has been hyped as one of the world’s brightest young talents but lacked the composure to finish when he sliced high and wide from the middle of the box.
Nottingham Forest made light of manager Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-season fears with a dominant 3-1 win over a much-changed Brentford.
Chris Wood struck twice either side of Dan Ndyoe’s debut goal for Forest on a nightmare afternoon for new Brentford boss Keith Andrews.
The Bees have lost their manager, captain and top scorer in the off-season.
Thomas Frank left to take charge of Tottenham, Mbeumo got his dream move to United and Arsenal secured Christian Norgaard.
Yoane Wissa was also missing from the Brentford squad ahead of an expected move to Newcastle.
Igor Thiago’s first goal for the club from the penalty spot late on was the only consolation for the visitors.
Arsenal, runners-up for the last three seasons, begin their quest for a first title in 22 years later away at a revamped Manchester United.
