London, February 19 (BNA) Hakim Ziyech scored the winning goal in the 89th minute to lead Chelsea to a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday after returning to the Premier League matches after winning the Club World Cup.
The Moroccan winger was lurking in the far corner to meet Marcos Alonso’s cross with a light shot into the net, allowing Chelsea to consolidate third place and move seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United.
The VAR had previously denied Ziyech a second-half goal after striker Romelu Lukaku, who had scored just seven touches at Selhurst Park, was deemed an offside, the Associated Press reported.
Chelsea have taken a week off since becoming the Club World Champion in Abu Dhabi and it was their first league game since January 23.
A late withdrawal from Cesar Azpilicueta and Callum Hudson-Odoi left visitors weak in south London, but the palace had problems of its own, with Chelsea’s loanee Conor Gallagher and Joel Ward missing.
This turned Palace coach Patrick Vieira into a 4-2-3-1 method, with Michael Ulis called up, and he almost opened the scoring seven minutes later.
Wilfried Zaha, spread out in the middle, found Olise on the right but after working a bit of space against Antonio Rudiger, he couldn’t help but pull his effort away.
Tuchel’s side responded with Christian Pulisic’s half-volley before Rudiger’s superb shot from over 35 yards (meters) off Vicente Guaita made a superb save.
Despite his lack of touches, Lukaku survived a three-way change from Thomas Tuchel to stay on the field and almost immediately turned a profit.
Substitute Mateo Kovacic’s first touch was a pass to Lukaku, who saw a shot saved by Buttland and Ziyech was on hand to punch the rebound into the net.
But Chelsea’s joy was lost due to the video assistant referee with the disqualification of the goal because Lukaku was offside, which sparked the celebrations of the home team’s fans.
Chelsea will not be rejected and it was another substitute, Alonso, who made the winning goal for Ziyech’s seventh goal of the season.
Zaha again came close to kick-off but Palace lost for the ninth time in a row to Chelsea.
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