Chelsea 3-1 Crystal Palace

'Fragile' Morata still needs to improve - Sarri

Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata is "fragile" and "needs to improve" despite scoring two goals in the win against Crystal Palace, says Blues boss Maurizio Sarri.

The Spain international inspired the hosts to a victory which took them above Liverpool and into second place in the Premier League.

Morata has netted 14 times in 40 league appearances since joining from Real Madrid for a then club record £60m in July 2017.

Asked after the match whether Morata can be the main striker at Stamford Bridge, Sarri told BBC Sport: "I don't know. I think potentially he can.

"He has to improve more in personality and in confidence - because sometimes he's a little bit fragile."

Hazard makes impact on return

The headlines will be about Morata - and the former Real Madrid and Juventus forward has now scored five Premier League goals, plus another in the Europa League, this season.

Yet the return of Eden Hazard added much needed energy and flair to a team that had struggled to open up Palace for the first hour.

Having missed the previous three league and cup games with a back injury, the Belgium international did not take long to make an impact after replacing Willian in the 64th minute with the score locked at 1-1.

Ninety-one seconds after his introduction, Chelsea were back in the lead after Palace's defence failed to deal with Hazard's free-kick into box, allowing Morata to drill home.

And five minutes later it was 3-1. Pedro - who had delivered the pass for Morata to break the deadlock in the first half - produced an unstoppable finish from Marcos Alonso's low cross.

"We were in a little bit of trouble so we needed some quality, some personality," added Sarri. "We were lucky today because Eden was on the bench so he was able immediately to change the match."

Since arriving in the summer of 2017, Morata has struggled to convince his critics he is a consistent goal source for Chelsea.

Yet his performance against Palace could well win him a few more admirers - even though he missed a chance to complete his hat-trick in the closing stages after being sent clean through by Hazard.

Premier League, top of the table snapshot: 1st Manchester City, 2nd Chelsea, 3rd Liverpool, 4th Tottenham, 5th Arsenal, 6th Bournemouth

Will Palace stay out of danger?

Andros Townsend's lovely equaliser after James McArthur sent him clear raised hopes Palace could leave Stamford Bridge with a potentially vital point.

Instead, they are without a win in six league matches and must plan for their next game at home to Tottenham on the back of a fourth defeat in five top-flight games.

After Spurs next Saturday, Palace's first game after the international break is at Manchester United on 24 November.

Having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Championship side Middlesbrough in midweek, Palace started well against Chelsea.

Results will come for Eagles - Roy Hodgson

With Wilfried Zaha causing problems at one end of the pitch and Mamadou Sakho strong at the other, Chelsea became frustrated until Morata scored with their first shot on target.

Chelsea have managed just two clean sheets in nine league and cup home games this season and Townsend's quality finish against the run of play - only Palace's eighth top-flight goal of the campaign - left them in sight of a first away point since 15 September.

Instead, Palace have now lost four in a row away from home and problems appear to be mounting for manager Roy Hodgson.

"The season has got a lot of football left in it and there's many more games to play," he said.

"I'm fairly confident with the players we have and the way we play that results will come. If you continue to perform at the right level the results have got to follow."

Man of the match - Alvaro Morata

Alvaro Morata celebrates scoring for Chelsea against Crystal Palace — It is 14 months since Alvaro Morata last scored a hat-trick for Chelsea and he should have been celebrating another against Palace. However, he impressed with two clinical finishes to help his side go second in the table.

Good omen? The stats

Chelsea are undefeated in their opening 11 Premier League matches of this season - they won the league in the previous two seasons they achieved this (2005-06 and 2014-15).
Blues boss Maurizio Sarri is unbeaten in his first 11 Premier League games as Chelsea manager - this is the joint-longest unbeaten start by a manager new to the competition, equalling the record set by Frank Clark in 1994.
Crystal Palace have taken just five points from their past 10 league matches.
Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata has scored four goals in his past four Premier League games - one more than in his previous 23 appearances in the competition combined (3).
Chelsea's Eden Hazard has assisted in three consecutive league appearances as a substitute.
Crystal Palace's Andros Townsend has scored three Premier League goals against Chelsea - more than he has against any other opponent.
Chelsea's Pedro has ended on the winning side in 39 of the 40 top-flight home matches he has scored in during his career (26 of 27 with Barcelona, 13 of 13 with Chelsea), drawing the other with Villarreal in January 2010.

What's next?

Chelsea are on their Europa League travels to Belarus to face Bate Borisov on Thursday (17:55 GMT) while Palace face another tough match at home to Tottenham in the league next Saturday (17:30 GMT).

Line-ups
Match Stats
Live Text

Line-ups

Chelsea

Formation 4-3-3

1Arrizabalaga
28Azpilicueta
2Rüdiger
30David Luiz
3Alonso
7Kanté
5JorginhoSubstituted forFàbregasat 80'minutes
8BarkleySubstituted forKovacicat 64'minutes
11Pedro
29Morata
22WillianSubstituted forE Hazardat 64'minutes

Substitutes

4Fàbregas
10E Hazard
12Loftus-Cheek
13Caballero
17Kovacic
21Zappacosta
24Cahill

Crystal Palace

Formation 4-4-2

13Hennessey
29Wan-Bissaka
5Tomkins
12Sakho
3van Aanholt
18McArthurSubstituted forSchluppat 80'minutes
8Kouyaté
4MilivojevicBooked at 86mins
7MeyerSubstituted forJ Ayewat 71'minutes
10Townsend
11Zaha

Substitutes

9Sørloth
14J Ayew
15Schlupp
31Guaita
34Kelly
42Puncheon
44Riedewald

Referee:: Michael Oliver
Attendance:: 40,407

Match Stats

Home TeamChelseaAway TeamCrystal Palace

Possession: Home74%; Away26%

Shots: Home15; Away7

Shots on Target: Home6; Away2

Corners: Home4; Away2

Fouls: Home6; Away13

Live Text

Post update
Match ends, Chelsea 3, Crystal Palace 1.
90'+3'
Full Time
Second Half ends, Chelsea 3, Crystal Palace 1.

90'+3'
Post update
Attempt saved. Álvaro Morata (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Eden Hazard with a through ball.
90'+2'
Post update
Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by César Azpilicueta.
90'+2'
Post update
Attempt blocked. Andros Townsend (Crystal Palace) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
89'
Post update
Pedro (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
89'
Post update
Foul by Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace).
86'
Post update
Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
86'
Post update
Foul by Cheikhou Kouyaté (Crystal Palace).
86'
Booking
Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace) is shown the yellow card.
86'
Post update
Cesc Fàbregas (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
86'
Post update
Foul by Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace).
84'
Post update
Foul by Pedro (Chelsea).
84'
Post update
Luka Milivojevic (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
84'
Post update
Offside, Chelsea. Pedro tries a through ball, but Álvaro Morata is caught offside.
81'
Post update
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
81'
Post update
Foul by Jeffrey Schlupp (Crystal Palace).
80'
Substitution
Substitution, Crystal Palace. Jeffrey Schlupp replaces James McArthur.
80'
Substitution
Substitution, Chelsea. Cesc Fàbregas replaces Jorginho.
80'
Post update
Attempt missed. Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by N'Golo Kanté.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Man City	11	9	2	0	33	4	29	29
2	Chelsea	11	8	3	0	27	8	19	27
3	Liverpool	11	8	3	0	21	5	16	27
4	Tottenham	11	8	0	3	19	10	9	24

5	Arsenal	11	7	2	2	25	14	11	23

6	Bournemouth	11	6	2	3	20	14	6	20
7	Man Utd	11	6	2	3	19	18	1	20
8	Watford	11	6	1	4	16	13	3	19
9	Everton	11	5	3	3	19	15	4	18
10	Leicester	11	5	1	5	17	16	1	16
11	Wolves	11	4	3	4	11	12	-1	15
12	Brighton	11	4	2	5	12	16	-4	14
13	West Ham	11	3	2	6	13	17	-4	11
14	Crystal Palace	11	2	2	7	8	16	-8	8
15	Burnley	11	2	2	7	12	25	-13	8
16	Southampton	11	1	4	6	7	20	-13	7
17	Newcastle	11	1	3	7	7	14	-7	6

18	Cardiff	11	1	2	8	9	24	-15	5
19	Fulham	10	1	2	7	11	28	-17	5
20	Huddersfield	10	0	3	7	4	21	-17	3

Team

Pts

-1

-4

-4

-8

-13

-13

-7

-15

-17

-17

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203 comments

Think BBC Sport need to fix their website. It’s showing Liverpool in 3rd but I was assured yesterday that they have already won the title. How can this be?
Sarri and his Chelsea side are playing brilliant stuff, without any of the 'hooha' that surrounds Liverpool and Klopp. City might just have too much firepower to think about the title this season but what this manager has achieved after 4 months is incredible.
Chelsea..... They can only get better. Not sure it will be enough to overhaul City though.
Chelsea’s tremendous consistent form since August is getting right under the skin of some of some of the trollers here . Haha love it !

Get used to it ladies . Chelsea aren’t even out of second gear . Sari will get in a couple of his picks.Move out a couple . And worrying times ahead for the trolls .
Good win. Always find it tough against Palace for whatever reason and they played well in patches today. Liverpool below Chelsea as it should be and all is well.
I’d still be massively shocked if we win the league but I’m so impressed with how we’re playing. It’s enjoyable to watch us play and so anything else is a bonus. I really hope that it stays so close at the top for a long while yet, it’d be amazing to have a six horse race to the finish 🍺
Chelsea are much improved since last year and Palace are not.

Sakho, Milivojevic and van Aanholt seem to have gone backwards.

Zaha, as good as he is, needs to be less petulant and get on with his game, track back to support his team & leave the referee to referee.

Meyer's good but he needs to play regularly as a No.10 to fulfil his promise.

No arguments over who deserved to win today.
Chelsea are improving every game .Morata will kick himself for not either shooting low , or going round the keeper for the hatrick .
Nevermind .
A good win against a decent side .
What are Liverpool fans doing here , other than exposing their total lack of class and exposing their paucity of interests beyond their own navel - or lower?
Not a Chelsea fan but I would love to see Morata become a roaring success. Whenever I see him he oozes class and silky skills but just doesn't score enough. I haven't figured out why, are his reactions sharp enough when that is called for? Maybe he is reaching a turning point. I hope so.
Considering Palace are one of our bogey teams, that's a very good result. Happy for Morata, the class is there evidenced by his movement off the ball, he just needs to get that run of finishes. Have to say though, that Wan-Bissaka lad is top quality, very impressive. Overall, good result, let's see what happens against Everton.
As a LCFC fan, like many others I'm sure, I am overwhelmed by the support and strength of the football family and the amazing tributes to Vichai this weekend. Thank you!
Sky need to address their biased pundits. The three that are on analysing the Chelsea game are simply chuffed to bits with that scoreline.....🤔NOT
Liverpool have had a fantastic start to the season

their 3rd

😂😂😂😂😂
Deluded j redknap moaning about Alonso and the idiot monotone palace pundit on sky saying palace deserved a point !!
Such haters those pair .
Carefree all way
Up the chels !
70. " Thursday night set to be their undoing. "

How come? Chelsea play their 2nd sting on Thursdays and will have absolutely no effect on their league performances.
Redknapp moaning about Alonso blocking in the next breath moans about Van Aanolt not blocking Pedro with his arm or something.. poor from Jamie sounds a bit jealous.
If he Morata can score regularly I think we will be there and there about. Come on you blues, blue is the coulor!
Well done boys, good win. 5 horse race this year, but one horse is a clear favourite. Will be glad if we run them close and get top 4 TBH.
I'm no Chelsea fan, but they look the most likely of the bunch to challenge City.

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