{"id":6040,"date":"2025-08-18T00:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6040\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T00:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:38:11","slug":"palmer-pedro-quiet-4-0m-acheampong-impresses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6040\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmer + Pedro quiet, \u00a34.0m Acheampong impresses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cole Palmer<\/strong> (\u00a310.5m) and Joao Pedro<\/strong> (\u00a37.5m) failed to break down a well-drilled Crystal Palace outfit on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Here are the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) takeaways from Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

PALMER + PEDRO QUIET<\/p>\n

This was the first time since Gameweek 1 of the 2024\/25 season that Chelsea failed to score at home.<\/p>\n

For all their firepower, there weren\u2019t loads of chances either, with only two shots on target.<\/p>\n

Just one big chance was created, too, as they looked a shadow of the team that destroyed Paris Saint-Germain in last month\u2019s FIFA Club World Cup final.<\/p>\n

Enzo Maresca opted for Joao Pedro to lead the line.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian, who is the most-owned forward in FPL, had scored five in five since his arrival, but only touched the ball 23 times and had two shots, both off target.<\/p>\n

Liam Delap<\/strong> (\u00a36.5m) was subsequently thrown on to replace him on 72 minutes.<\/p>\n

As for Palmer, he was equally quiet and has now failed to score from open play in any of his last 17 Premier League games for Chelsea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Above: Cole Palmer\u2019s shot map v Crystal Palace in Gameweek 1<\/p>\n

Pedro Neto<\/strong> (\u00a37.0m) and Jamie Gittens <\/strong>(\u00a36.5m) also lacked quality on the flanks, and they\u2019ll already feel under pressure from substitute Estevao<\/strong> (\u00a36.5m), who did at least bring some excitement to Stamford Bridge, almost creating a goal with his first involvement.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHe was very good. He showed personality \u2013 he has already shown that in training. He will be a very important player for this club.\u201d \u2013 Enzo Maresca on Estevao<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But perhaps it was to be expected that Chelsea wouldn\u2019t be as sharp as Palace, given that the Blues only started pre-season training 13 days ago.<\/p>\n

They do at least face West Ham United next, who suffered a miserable 3-0 loss at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe could have counter-attacked better but it is only the first game of the season. They played about eight games, we played just two so we tried our best.\u201d \u2013 Enzo Maresca<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a34.0M ACHEAMPONG STEPS UP<\/p>\n

With Tosin Adarabioyo<\/strong> (\u00a34.5m) and Levi Colwill<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m) out injured, teenager Josh Acheampong<\/strong> (\u00a34.0m) partnered Trevoh Chalobah<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m) at the back.<\/p>\n

Confident on the ball, he looked more than ready, registering eight defensive contributions (DefCons), including five clearances. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThey played very well, they didn\u2019t concede anything. Josh [Acheampong] did well, he is very young and he is going to be a good player for this club.\u201d \u2013 Enzo Maresca on his centre-backs<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Acheampong\u2019s long-term prospects remain unclear, however.<\/p>\n

Tosin only has a \u201csmall problem\u201d according to Maresca, but the Italian wasn\u2019t sure exactly how long he would be out.<\/p>\n

The return of Wesley Fofana<\/strong> (\u00a34.5m), who was on the bench against Palace, was also discussed.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPhysical problem \u2013 we don\u2019t know for how long.<\/p>\n

\u201cWes was on the bench. Hopefully for the next one we can start to use Wes for some minutes.\u201d \u2013 Enzo Maresca on Tosin Adarabioyo and Wesley Fofana<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere, Marc Cucurella<\/strong> (\u00a36.0m) was active in attack and often inverted into midfield, with his early flicked header cleared off the line.<\/p>\n

Moises Caicedo<\/strong> (\u00a35.5m), meanwhile, put in plenty of tackles and interceptions and claimed five points, thanks to 12 DefCons.<\/p>\n

PALACE STAND FIRM<\/p>\n

Out of the two managers, Oliver Glasner will no doubt be happier.<\/p>\n

Eberechi Eze<\/strong> (\u00a37.5m), who started despite transfer interest from Tottenham Hotspur, thought he\u2019d opened the scoring after smashing a free-kick past Robert Sanchez<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m), only for VAR to rule it out.<\/p>\n

Jean-Philippe Mateta<\/strong> (\u00a37.5m) was later denied after a smart pass from Adam Wharton<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m).<\/p>\n

However, this match was all about Palace\u2019s rearguard, who embraced the battle and just wouldn\u2019t let Chelsea through.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Dean Henderson<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m) didn\u2019t have a proper save to make.<\/p>\n

Maxence Lacroix<\/strong> (\u00a35.0m) was the standout defender. Equal to everything thrown at him, he anchored the back line superbly and racked up 16 DefCons.<\/p>\n

Palace still have some tricky fixtures to come, but on Sunday\u2019s evidence, will be difficult to break down.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Palmer (\u00a310.5m) and Joao Pedro (\u00a37.5m) failed to break down a well-drilled Crystal Palace outfit on Sunday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,2052,18,13,14,6073,6074,6075,6,19,17,6076,11,12,15,16,5,6077,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-6040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-chelsea","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-fpl-review","15":"tag-gam","16":"tag-gameweek-1","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-joao-pedro","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-palace","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}