A second-half equaliser by Nigerian striker Eberechi Eze gave Crystal Palace their first point of the Premier League season as they secured a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea on Sunday, bouncing back from a poor start to grab a share of the spoils after a much-improved second half.
The home side broke the deadlock in the 25th minute after Palace defender Marc Guehi made an ill-advised raid forward and lost the ball. The Blues countered quickly, with Nicolas Jackson scoring from close range from a pass by Cole Palmer.
Outplayed for most of the opening 45 minutes, Palace eventually turned their fortunes around after the break and Eze equalised in the 53rd minute, picking up the rebound from Cheick Doucoure’s blocked shot and curling the ball beautifully into the net from outside the box.
Both sides had chances to grab a winner in the second half with Levi Colwill going close for Chelsea and Palace’s Daichi Kamada forcing a fine save, but despite just over eight minutes of stoppage time neither side could find another goal and the game ended in a stalemate.
Will Hughes had already been booked when he committed what looked to be a cautionable offence on Cole Palmer just after the break.
Despite the remonstrations of Maresca, Hughes remained on the pitch long enough to be substituted for Cheick Doucouré, a replacement that changed the tone of the match.
“I don’t think there’s many things to add because it was clear for all of us that it was a second yellow card,” a frustrated Maresca said. “The only one who thinks otherwise is the referee and he’s the one who decides. They would have gone to 10 and the game would have changed but the referee saw it another way.
“We completely deserved to win the game. We controlled the game. Overall, we completely deserved to win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t. The performance was very good, on and off the ball. After we conceded the goal we lost our way.”
Certainly, until that point, Chelsea had been allowed to dominate as Palmer conducted a more cohesive unit and Enzo Fernández helped to orchestrate neat patterns for them to play to.
