Latest news with #Jamie Gittens
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Chelsea 0 Crystal Palace 0: Pedro and Gittens make promising debuts
It felt like the first day of school after the summer holidays at the Bridge as Chelsea played out a goalless draw against Palace. There were a few new boys in the class, and one or two absentees, as the Club World Cup champions took on the FA Cup winners in the baking sunshine. Joao Pedro began up front (Liam Delap replaced him midway through the second half), while Jamie Gittens, signed from Borussia Dortmund as Jadon Sancho's replacement on the left wing, looked promising. With Levi Colwill likely to miss months of action after knee surgery, 6ft 3in teenager Josh Acheampong made a bright start deputising in central defence. The clean sheet will have boosted his confidence. But Chelsea really should have turned 70% possession into at least one goal, as chance after chance ended up in Row Z. Crystal Palace did manage to get the ball in the net, via an Eberechi Eze rocket of a free kick after 13 minutes. But the away fans' delirium was snuffed out by a VAR review. The Blues had only four weeks to recuperate after their summer adventure in the USA, winning the Club World Cup by defeating PSG and banking £85million in prize money along the way. So maybe it was too much to expect fireworks on the pitch in addition to the fireworks launched from the stadium roof before kick-off to mark their new title. "We created enough chances," said rueful manager Enzo Maresco, adding that he felt Chelsea deserved victory. Perplexingly for Chelsea fans, who overwhelmingly opt for Cole Palmer's name on the back of their replica shirts, he has switched from 20 to 10, taking over the in-limbo Mykhailo Mudryk's shirt number to mirror his idol Lionel Messi. New striker Joao Pedro has taken 20, which means the tills will be ringing in the club shop as weary parents are nagged for replacements to last season's versions at £100 a pop. Emerging into the Fulham Road after Sunday's 0-0 draw, both Palmer 10s and 20s were widely on show.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Chelsea v Crystal Palace: Key stats and talking points
Chelsea and Crystal Palace have both won two trophies each since the end of the last domestic season and will hope to carry that momentum into the first London derby of the new Premier League claimed the first major honour in their history by winning the FA Cup final and also beat Liverpool on penalties last weekend to lift the Community meanwhile, claimed silverware in the Conference League and the newly expanded Club World their summers have otherwise followed very different relentless turnover of players has continued apace, with over £230m spent on incomings and more than £190m recouped in signings, such as Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato and Estevao Willian, could make their league debuts for the Blues on Sunday, as could the in-form Joao Pedro. The Brazilian scored three goals in two starts at the Club World Cup and also netted in pre-season wins over Bayer Leverkusen and AC meanwhile, have spent just £2m - the second lowest figure in the top flight prior to the weekend - adding some squad depth with the recruitment of full-back Borna Sosa and goalkeeper Walter unprecedented success on the field, it has been a testing period for chairman Steve Parish. On Monday, Palace lost their appeal against demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport backing Uefa's decision that they were in breach of multi-club ownership rules. The club are also braced for bids for Marc Guehi, who has entered the final year of his contract, and Eberechi Eze, who has been linked with Arsenal and Eze would be a real blow, particularly this late in the transfer has improved his total number of goals and assists in each of the past three seasons and either scored or created 26 goals in all competitions last term, the highest figure of his career.
