Chelsea started 2025 by drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace in Premier Leagueextending their top flight winless streak to four games.
Cole Palmer opened the scoring after just 14 minutes, connecting well with Jadon Sancho scored his 13th goal in the first division campaigns.
The Blues had plenty of opportunities to increase their lead in the first half, recording nine strikeouts in total, and they would regret missing them.
With just eight minutes of regular time remaining, the Stamford Bridge side equalized and Jean-Philippe Mateta scored for Palace to equalise. The match ended with both teams sharing the spoils, but Enzo Maresca he would be especially disappointed with his team Nicholas Jackson…
Nicolas Jackson’s struggles against Crystal Palace
The forward played 81 minutes during the match, but he he failed to hit the goalmissing three attempts while succeeding with just one dribble.
The centre-forward missed a great chance to add to the lead during the first half after running onto Palmer’s through ball, but spurned a chance that would have come back to him.
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Crystal Palace – Chelsea – Key Statistics |
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|---|---|
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Stat |
Highest ranked |
|
Precise passes |
Levi Colwill (77) |
|
Key passages |
Cole Palmer (5) |
|
Solving |
Tyrick Mitchell (6) |
|
Won duels on the ground |
Daniel Munoz (9) |
|
Successful dribble attempts |
Jadon Sancho (3) |
Jackson struggled to get involved, taking just 30 touches and completing nine passes while winning just four of the 11 tackles he took during his spell on the field.
It was not the best performance of the Senegalese representative, who received a match rating 4/10 for his coverage in the Express after the game.
Jackson probably wasn’t the worst of the bunch. That is reserved for Marco Cucurello, who looked a shadow of himself this afternoon.
Marco Cucurella’s game in numbers against Crystal Palace
The left-back has impressed so often under Maresco this term, boosted by playing an important role in Spain’s European Championship winning side over the summer.
He struggled a lot against Palace, especially going forward. He attempted one dribblehe made zero key passes and also failed to create much of a chance during the game.
In defense, he was not much better. Indeed, the Spaniard – who also failed to keep up with Mateta for the striker’s equalizer – lost possession ten times, losing five of his eight contested tackles, while once being dribbled past in something that was forgotten.
Express journalist Tom Parsons gave him rating 5/10 for his performance, stating that Cucurella ‘didn’t get too many chances to get forward and allowed Palace to get too many crosses down the right’ during the clash.
The Blues play Morecambe in the FA Cup next weekend and that could see Maresca change his side to give some young players a chance in the starting XI.
Shifting the full-back to the bench – with Renato Veiga waiting on the pitch – could do Cucurella some good, especially as Chelsea play Bournemouth just three days after their cup tie.
