Champions of the world they may be, but a stormy south London proved a tougher realm to conquer for Chelsea as they stuttered on their return to Premier League action at Crystal Palace.
In truth, a bit of Eunice-induced carnage would not have gone amiss in a tepid game, but Hakim Ziyech’s late winner did at least give the Blues the kind of victory in a close-run affair that they have struggled at times to grind out - and the kind they will need plenty more of if they are to have any chance of adding the domestic title to that global crown next season.
A point on the road in rancid conditions might once have been a take-it-and-move-on result, but in the era of Manchester City standards there is no such thing. “We’ve won it all” the away end sang at kick-off and again as they celebrated at full-time, but, put simply, too often this season they have not.
It is their draws - all eight of them - rather than their defeats, that have cost Thomas Tuchel’s side so dearly in the title race, the Blues having lost just once more than champions-elect City, who they still trail by 13 points.
Too often in the league, a mismatch of expensive attacking talent has struggled to deliver when tasked with proving the difference in a close affair and for 89 minutes here the quartet of Ziyech, Romelu Lukaku, Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz, assembled at a cost somewhere in the region of £250million, were on course to be guilty of that failing once more.
Havertz and Lukaku, whose relationship showed green shoots during the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, struggled badly on what was just their fifth league start together, though that word is used loosely, given they rarely cropped up with 10 yards of one another, the German largely confined to the left wing as Pulisic occupied a central No10 role. The American got on the end of a Ziyech cross early on but could not keep his finish down and did little else of note to trouble the Palace rearguard.
But with Timo Werner evidently not fit enough to play a part from the bench, Tuchel had little room for manoeuvre and instead reshuffled in midfield and defence in a bid to get more from his ailing front-line with a hail-Mary of a triple substitution a quarter-of-an-hour from time.
The ploy almost worked instantly, Mateo Kovacic’s pass with his first touch of the ball providing some much needing incision and Lukaku’s only decent bit of service all afternoon. The Belgian shot and was denied by Jack Butland, with Ziyech converting the rebound, only to be denied by VAR.
That felt like justice done in a game that scarcely deserved a goal, but another substitute, Marcos Alonso, whipped to the back-post and Ziyech again finished assuredly, this time from an onside position, to earn the kind of gritty victory that this side must ensure becomes a permanent part of their repertoire.
Chelsea can’t get Reece James back quick enough
The loss of stellar wing-backs Reece James and Ben Chilwell at the height of their form has long been held up as the drawn-out day the music died in terms of Chelsea’s title aspirations and Tuchel conceded that his recent willingness to veer away from the system that had them purring and shift to a back four has been born of necessity.
That he did so with Malang Sarr and Andreas Christensen as his full-backs here rather hammered home the point.
Sarr is no Chilwell in terms of dynamism or delivery, but to his credit managed to make himself Chelsea’s creator-in-chief during the first half, carving Palace open with a superb pass that N’Golo Kante should have made more of.
Christensen, meanwhile, should at least have provided some additional stability in lieu of a natural attacking inclination, but it was down his flank that most of Palace’s best moments came, with Wilfried Zaha typically sparky.
Still, it was the introduction of Alonso, overworked since Chilwell’s knee injury, that proved pivotal and on the opposite flank the return of Reece James cannot come soon enough.
