Author: Liam

Crystal Palace had to play against the Premier League table toppers Chelsea on October 18 at the Selhurst Park which is the home turf of Palace. The match was intense as 2 players received red cards and a late goal from Fraizer Campbell turned the last few minutes of the match into a dramatic finale.

Oscar and Cesc Fabregas gave Chelsea the lead in the first half with the former Barcelona player scoring his first goal with the jersey of Chelsea and Loic Remy made his first league start for Chelsea as he replaced Diego Costa who was suffering from a hamstring injury.

The match started to get heated up in the final stages of the first half when Azpilicueta received a straight red card after tackling Mile Jedinak and forced Chelsea to play with 10 men on the pitch but only 3 minutes later and a player from Crystal Palace also received a red card as the Irish defender Damien Delaney was sent off of the pitch with a 2^nd yellow card after challenging Willian.

The goals from Oscar and Fabregas kept the game in favor of Chelsea as they weren’t in need of attacking too much and risking their defensive side on conceding any unnecessary goals. Fraizer Campbell did manage to score a goal at the 90^th minute but that was all that the home team managed to do.

When the match reached its end and Chelsea claimed the victory, the manager of Crystal Palace critiqued the decisions of the referee as Neil Warnock believes that the players of Chelsea influenced in the red card that was shown to Damien Delaney and if it hadn’t been for the red card, Crystal Palace could have managed to claim the triumph.

Neil Warnock said: “The one thing I’ve not missed when I’ve been doing media work is refereeing performances like that. I thought he was influenced today. He had four Chelsea players around him. You cannot take anything away from our lot because we played some good stuff. We could have scored two or three in the first 40 minutes and that would have been a different game’’

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has claimed that the club’s new manager Neil Warnock is a safe pair of hands and that the club can look forward to staying in the Premier league under his regime. Warnock was appointed as the Crystal Palace manager for the second time in his career. He will be taking over from Tony Pulis, who left the job just a few days before the start of the new season. The 65-year-old previously managed the club for a period of three years between 2007 and 2010 before joining QPR.

Warnock has previously managed clubs in the Premier League, but he has so far been unable to keep them in the division. This will be a chance to prove his doubters wrong, as Crystal Palace are once again expected to be in the midst of relegation trouble. Pulis did a great job to get the club player of relegation trouble and almost in top four qualification form last season. The good work done by him during pre-season will go a long way towards helping Warnock settle immediately to the club. After back-to-back defeats in the opening two matches, Crystal Palace go to St James’s Park in order to take on Newcastle United.

Their next few matches look winnable with the likes of Leicester City and Burnley as their opponents.

“It’s not so much about being relieved, it’s about being happy that we’ve found the right person. I’ve known Neil since the club went into administration. He’s someone who’s always been helpful to me and offered advice and I think he’s a safe pair of hands for us right now. He’s got unfinished business in the Premier League. As we all know he went down with 38 points, which would have kept you up last year, and in unfortunate circumstances with Sheffield (United in 2007),” said Parish.