Crystal Palace 6-0 Chelsea
Premier League Two Playoffs - may 2, 2025
Reap what you sow.
Take a still picture if Chelsea U21s at the end of 2023-24 and fast forward one year ; not a single player improved. Less risks, less carries, less responsibility.
The whole thing diluted from tinkering with parody De Zerbi bullshit, scrapped after 2 months to then move to bland 442. And now that indigent serving of whatever. "Someone is gonna do something". Performances have been abject for months, scrapping 2-0 wins with goals you will be led to believe stem from the aimless The Walking Dead Football performed in between.
Mheuka not starting, why?
Antwi subbed at 60, why?
Dyer as 10? Why; lack of trust isn't unsettling him because he'll pick up the ball deep anyway. But it pushes two players who can't connect a pass to the forward line once in final third. McNeilly on an island who can't receive and be his own support striker with the whole Mheuka exiled on touchline LW experiment.
Ampah coming on; of course one of the player Maresca gave a debut- as ineffective as he's been in most games despite a willingness to take people on.
For Palace ; Hindolo Mustapha was phenomenal. Would almost feel unfair to draw the parallel with Eberechi Eze as a all action 8 on a good day (that was his day) because Mustapha is also industrious out of possession and doesn't shirk a challenge.
He's taken the net off on two occasions - another amusing thing to know who watches football as a whole and who's waiting for water to turn into wine.
If your midfielder can't hit the target after a 120 million move having scored 12 career goals from outside the box, you can stop insulting people's intelligence claiming it's just about "working a bit on it".
You'd have signs he's actually good at it. Palace in their usual hybrid 532 with Cardines doing wing back shifts. CB pairing was solid to defend the box. Ola Adebomi a handful and scored his goal, still not sure where I stand with him (even with the tall lanky 9 framework).
Some VIP in attendance ; Oliver Glasner, Steve Parish and Danny Cowley (Colchester), Hassan Sulaiman.
