Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace: Three Things We Learned

The new Premier League season is officially underway and it’s safe to say it’s begun with a bang. There have been plenty of goals to speak of across the last few days and it still isn’t over with a few really exciting fixtures set to take place on Sunday. Before that, though, we’re going to take the time to look at what proved to be a one-sided affair at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea running riot in a 3-0 success over Crystal Palace. Marcos Alonso and Christian Pulisic made it 2-0 before young prospect Trevor Chalobah sealed the deal thanks to a lovely strike.

Blues efficiency

The biggest takeaway from this game was just how efficient Chelsea were both on and off the ball. Thomas Tuchel has them working under a system that allows for strong attacking intent, and in equal measure, a reassured defensive structure. They’ve clearly taken the momentum they had from the Champions League final win and built on it, which should quite easily make them one of the most terrifying teams to face across Europe – and that’s before you even get down to the nitty-gritty of their team.

Work for Vieira

Patrick Vieira was never going to receive a particularly warm response from the Chelsea faithful given his history with Arsenal, but this turned out to be a pretty brutal baptism of fire. The Blues were better in just about every department and Palace simply did not have an answer for what they were able to produce. Vieira was always going to be a risky hire and there’s a lot of time left before there can be an official judgement on how he’s getting on, but there has to be some kind of improvement within the core of their squad as we head into the next few fixtures.

Lukaku too?

Mendy, Jorginho and Mount alone are three players that immediately come to mind when discussing the overall strength of this Chelsea squad, but we all know it runs much deeper than that. Plus, the impending addition of Romelu Lukaku once he’s back to full fitness should give them the kind of option up top that’s going to make them even more lethal in front of goal. We legitimately didn’t think that was possible and yet, here comes the returning Belgian to cause the kind of chaos and drama up top that should bode incredibly well for this club in the next few years.