Morata Brace Sinks Palace At the Bridge

By Max Wise 

Chelsea eased to a comfortable 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on Sunday to move up to second place on the Premier League table.

The much-maligned Alvaro Morata was the hero of the day as he struck at either side of an Andros Townsend equalizer, before Pedro gave Chelsea the insurance goal to seal the win.

The result means unbeaten Chelsea stay two points behind leaders Manchester City whiles Palace remain three points above the relegation zone after a seventh defeat in 11 league games.

Chelsea enjoyed plenty of possession in the opening exchanges, but a scuffed effort from Willian in the second minute remained their only shot in the first 15 minutes. Crystal Palace caused problems with their counter-attack as Wilfried Zaha found Max Meyer on the edge of the box, but his shot flew high over the crossbar.

Marcos Alonso swung an excellent ball into the box for Alvaro Morata in the 26th minute, but the Spaniard couldn’t divert his header goalwards.

Chelsea found the breakthrough in the 32nd minute when Morata latched onto a rebound to hit the ball home without much trouble.

The last significant action of the first half occurred in the 39th minute when Willian lifted a free kick into the area towards Marcos Alonso, who nodded it back into the centre. Alvaro Morata glanced it towards the far corner but missed the target.

Crystal Palace got the equalizer in the 53rd minute when James McArthur slipped a lovely ball through the middle which Andros Townsend chased. His first touch was a good one, but his second was even better as he drilled it low into the far corner.

Palace goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, produced a great save in the 63rd minute to stop David Luiz from planting a header into the right top corner, a minute before Maurizio Sarri played his first cards by bringing Mateo Kovacic and Eden Hazard for Willian and Ross Barkley respectively.

It was the latter who made an immediate impact just a minute later.

Hazard's free-kick bounced straight through a crowd of players in the box and found Alvaro Morata on the far post. The striker drilled it into the far corner for his fourth goal in four League games.

Chelsea made the game safe 5 minutes later when Marcos Alonso drilled a low cross into the box and Pedro slotted it home.