LONDON: Chelsea began their bid to follow up a Champions League title with another Premier League trophy by beating Crystal Palace 3-0 on Saturday, illustrating the size of the task facing newly hired manager Patrick Vieira at the visitors.
Defenders Marcos Alonso and Trevoh Chalobah — with his first goal for Chelsea, on his Premier League debut — scored either side of a close-range strike by US forward Christian Pulisic in a dominant display by Thomas Tuchel’s team.
The win came three days after Chelsea won the UEFA Super Cup by beating Villarreal in a penalty shootout.
While it makes for a perfect start to the season for the European champions, Palace could be facing a tough year under Vieira, the former Arsenal and France star who replaced Roy Hodgson in charge for his first senior managerial role in English soccer.
Vieira has pledged to adopt a more attacking style than previous Palace managers, but his team barely created a clear-cut chance at Stamford Bridge. This shouldn’t be the game to judge him, though.
Even without Romelu Lukaku, who completed his move from Inter Milan for a club-record $135 million on Friday, Chelsea had far too much going forward for Palace — with even two defenders chipping in with goals.
Alonso, an attacking wing back, was dangerous throughout and capped an impressive display by curling a free kick over the defensive wall and inside the near post in the 27th minute.
Pulisic made it 2-0 by converting a finish from close range after Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita failed to gather a low cross by Cesar Azpilicueta from the right.
The 22-year-old Chalobah, who played on the right of the back three after making his first competitive senior appearance for Chelsea against Villarreal, completed a memorable few days by scoring the third goal. It was a brilliant one, too, as he collected a pass midway into Palace’s half on the right, advanced, and drilled a low shot in off the far post from 25 meters.
Chelsea begin Premier League title bid with 3-0 win over Crystal Palace
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Chelsea begin Premier League title bid with 3-0 win over Crystal Palace
- The win came three days after Chelsea won the UEFA Super Cup
- Patrick Vieira has pledged to adopt a more attacking style than previous Palace managers
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
