Christian Benteke's sumptuous strike turned out to be Crystal Palace's winner against Chelsea.
How wrong we all were! Crystal Palace came from behind with two goals in two minutes and then held out in the face of a Blues onslaught, with keeper Wayne Hennessey refusing to be beaten again.
Antonio Conte’s side missed chances galore – and when they did get through Palace’s packed ranks Hennessey was there to deny them.
It all started so well for the home side, with Chelsea needing just five minutes to get the dream factory believing.
Cesc Fabregas hit a long, raking pass from deep inside his own area to Eden Hazard on the left. Hazard did what he normally does, jinked, moved and held play until the cavalry arrived.
It did in the shape of Fabregas who dashed to side-foot in a move he had started 70 yards earlier. The lead lasted four minutes with Wilfried Zaha worming his way through Chelsea’s defence to hit a shot wide of the diving Thibaut Courtois.
Then a minute later it was 2-1 with Christian Benteke seizing onto Zaha’s pass to added a second.
It sparked a revival from Chelsea that witnessed Hennessey save with his knees from Costa and other Palace players making last ditch tackles.
The football came from Chelsea. Palace supplied the shocks.
Palace defended deep and it needed the likes of Hazard to open doors but he always seemed to run into walls.
Zaha’s skills always gave Palace an outlet and others were swift to join the fray and unsettle Chelsea, who until now had seemingly had it all their own way.
Palace proved ferocious fighter and their defence was superbly marshalled by on-loan Mamadou Sakho, high on the wanted list of many now Liverpool don’t want him.
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