Chelsea disappointed yet again in another away trip in the premier league as we lost to Crystal Palace for the first time since 1990 in the league at their home. Poor finishing up top was the theme of the game as we registered only 2 shots on goal compared to the home sides’ 4 shots on Petr Cech. Our Czech stopper saved us more than a couple of times in the second after Crystal Palace had opened the scoring.

Now, we are forced to relinquish our lead at the top of the table unless Arsenal and Tottenham beat Manchester City and Liverpool in London this weekend. John Terry’s own goal cost his side a valuable game and a chance for us to lift the epl trophy but, we must now look forward to the next important task in hand against PSG in the champions league this midweek away.

But, first let’s take an important look at FIVE things we can get out of this game especially moments that lead us to lose this game that should have been won..

Poor finishing from Fernando Torres plus not enough chances created.

We are surely tired of hearing this points as Samuel Eto’o delivers big performances in big games but, while he is out and injured, Fernando Torres has been wasteful in front of goal in a lot of games this season. Against Crystal Palace, he failed miserably to equalize by capitalizing on a mistaken back pass from the opposition defense. His touches in the game were poor to speak of and hardly even a shadow of the beast Liverpool striker we knew years ago. Jose Mourinho surely knows that and will make a whole sale of changes this summer in the striker spot including the sale of Torres and Demba Ba.

Ivanovic isn’t the long term option for the right back spot. 

As we saw many times this season and especially this after noon while players with the height of Ba and Torres were waiting in the box, the Serbian international fired lots of crosses that weren’t close to a white shirt of Chelsea to be nodded home. Ivanovic isn’t comfortable at crossing balls even though he has the right amount of composure and speed to move up and down as a full back combined with his sheer athleticism in defense. We cannot take away his aerial ability too but, the fact is that we need Azpilicueta to be doing what he has been doing fantastically in the left back spot on his natural position starting from next season possibly so Ivanovic might be rotated in the center back role and right back spot as well.

A signing of a top left back will solve the above aforementioned problem.

For Cesar Azpilicueta to play in his natural right back role, we need to find a long term option in the left back position so we can have a balanced back line in defensive approach as well as attacking and CROSSING. Luke Shaw will be the best option as he is English and knows the premier league so well already after impressing with Southampton since his inclusion to the first team by the age of 17. Now approaching his 19th birthday, the left back who is a Chelsea fan can solve this problem if we manage to snatch him up before the World Cup as veteran Ashley Cole is set to leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

The need for a striker to bang in goals costing us the premier league trophy..

Some fans blame Luis Suarez for scoring bunch of goals and killing off small teams while he hardly scores against big teams as he does against lowly opposition. But, that is exactly the type of strikers you need at times while it is also important to have an experienced big game winner like Samuel Eto’o to do just that against top teams. Fernando Torres though isn’t that type of player anymore as he struggled to even trouble many small oppositions goal keepers in a lot of games this season. And this game is a prime example of that as he neither tried to create a chance nor did he take them for himself.

Is the title bid over for the Blues?…not really

The question on every Chelsea fans lip right now, is the title chances over for Chelsea? well in football anything can happen and you cannot rule out anything yet since we are leading at the moment until Liverpool play Spurs away while Manchester City travel to Arsenal who are looking to stay in the title race as well with 6 points behind us. We still play Liverpool away so the task of Brendan Rodgers’ team succeeding in lifting the trophy can be stopped by Jose’s team at Anfield in a title decider match. Manchester City are the only challengers that have a game in hand and we can only win our remaining games and hope the citizens of Manchester lose some games on the way to lifting the trophy.

Here are the main points of the match in my views and we should not blame or cast doubt on Terry’s ability to lead and perform well at the back for Chelsea. We have to accept this defeat as it’s a result of a bad performance and a great tactic set up by Tony Pulis’ men to deny us a chance to march on to the trophy. Now, it’s time to look forward to the next important game against PSG in an away first leg trip to Paris and we must hope for a comfortable win and advantage ahead of the second leg at the Bridge.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you thought of the performance in comment below. Keep your chin up always and KTBFFH to the next game!! Paris awaits..#CFC