A second-half equaliser by Eberechi Eze gave Crystal Palace their first level of the Premier League season as they secured a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea on Sunday, bouncing again from a poor begin to seize a share of the spoils after a much-improved second half.
The house aspect broke the impasse within the twenty fifth minute after Palace defender Marc Guehi made an ill-advised raid ahead and misplaced the ball, and the guests’ defensive frailties have been as soon as once more shortly uncovered.
Winger Noni Madueke surged down the appropriate earlier than choosing out Cole Palmer, and his deft cross discovered Nicolas Jackson steaming by means of the centre to attain with ease from shut vary and put Palace on the again foot.
After slumping to successive defeats of their opening video games of the season towards West Ham United and Brentford and beginning badly at Stamford Bridge, the Eagles lastly achieved lift-off after the break.
The influential Palmer nearly scored from a direct free kick earlier than Palace discovered their mojo and Eze equalised within the 53rd minute, choosing up the rebound from Cheick Doucoure’s blocked shot and curling the ball fantastically into the web from exterior the field.
Each side continued to chase a winner, with Levi Colwill going shut for Chelsea and Palace’s Daichi Kamada forcing a fantastic save because the clocked ticked up in direction of 90 minutes.
Eze had a shot from the sting of the field blocked as his crew appeared to tire in stoppage time, and Jackson had two nice alternatives to grab a winner for the Blues.
First he drove a shot into the aspect netting to the appropriate of Dean Henderson’s objective, and a minute later he was performed in behind the defence just for the Palace goalkeeper to shortly depart his line to avert the hazard.
Regardless of simply over eight minutes of stoppage time, neither aspect might discover one other objective and the sport resulted in a stalemate.