The lead has been cut to seven points at the top of the table after Chelsea were surprisingly beaten at home by Crystal Palace.
With Tottenham Hotspur winning at Burnley the title race could well be about to become a two-horse race, even more so with Chelsea facing a difficult looking home fixture against Manchester City on Wednesday evening.
But, in all honesty, Chelsea could play like today and give most other teams a walloping. The Crystal Palace goal led a charmed life as Chelsea pummelled it for most of the game.
Wayne Hennessey, in the Palace goal, pulled off some crucial saves, the Palace defenders produced some inspired blocks and Chelsea were at times, guilty of some poor finishing.
All three goals, in this game, came in the opening eleven minutes. With Eden Hazard being passed fit Chelsea got off to the best possible start when some fine play between Hazard and Cesc Fabregas saw the Spaniard net after five minutes.
The opening goal should have provided the springboard for Chelsea to go on and win the game but Palace were to shock the champions-elect with two goals in a two-minute spell.
With nine minutes gone Wilfried Zaha reminded everybody what a fine player he is when he produced a moment of skill before scoring into the far corner. Two minutes later Palace were ahead when Zaha provided an assist for Christian Benteke, who has now scored on his last three visits to Stamford Bridge, to cheekily lift the ball over Courtois and into the net.
From that moment on Chelsea exerted the majority of the pressure, Hazard was on top-form and it looked only a matter of time before the net bulged, but as stated earlier in the report, it just didn`t happen.
In fact, in the second half, Zaha had a glorious chance to make it 3-1 but the out-stretched leg of Courtois kept Chelsea in with the chance of snatching a point.
The last half-hour saw Chelsea camped in the Palace half and as time began to run down even David Luiz was permanently in the Palace penalty area, but despite all the effort and the ten minutes of stoppage time played, Palace held on for their three points and Chelsea will now be taking a worrying look over their shoulders as Tottenham start to close the gap.
With fixtures against Manchester City (h) Manchester United (a) and Everton (a) to come, there is still some serious hard work to be done t lift the Premier League title.
Share this article
