Chelsea vs Crystal Palace live: London clubs share stalemate after Eze free kick ruled out by VAR

It was yet another game where you could see why the Premier League’s wealthiest clubs want Eberechi Eze and half of Crystal Palace’s players.

Palace continued an already historic year. This was their 25th game of the year, and they have only lost three. Of those, the last 10 have involved six matches either away or at Wembley against the old “big six”, and another FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa. They are unbeaten in all of them, and have won two trophies.

In short, Palace have become that team that the title challengers and more entitled wealthy clubs absolutely detest playing. There’s always one, but Oliver Glasner has possibly taken this side even further than any of them.

"The 15, 16 players who had the most minutes last year are still here,” Glasner says. “There are a lot of rumours about Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi but they were 100 per cent with this group in Crystal Palace and they have proved that in a big way.

On the future of Eberechi Eze, Glasner said: "Eb should have scored a goal today, he had one and it was disallowed. He will come tomorrow to the Crystal Palace training ground, Tuesday off, we take Wednesday and I expect him to be back playing for us against Fredrikstad."

Chelsea made an underwhelming start to the Premier League season as Crystal Palace ground out a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge.

After a truncated pre-season following victory in the Club World Cup, everything pointed to a Chelsea side lacking both preparation and rest as Oliver Glasner’s team coped relative easily with a new-look yet disjointed attack.

Eberechi Eze started for Palace despite speculation he is about to leave and, if there were doubts about how supporters felt about the player whose goal won them the FA Cup in May, they were dispelled when he was substituted to a standing ovation late on.

The England international provided the game with its only major talking point, lashing in a brilliant free-kick in the first half that was ruled out after Marc Guehi obstructed Chelsea’s wall, drawing a furious response from Palace fans.

It ended 3-1 at the City Ground, Nottingham Forest off and running at the same speed with which they played for much of last season. Two goals for Chris Wood and an excellent start for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men against Brentford.

Crystal Palace look just as they did last season - organised, settled, and with enough threat to snatch a game here or there. Eberechi Eze’s future could be a spanner in the well-oiled works but Oliver Glasner will be pleased with a very solid start.

It’s Fredrikstad in the Conference League play-off round next for them at Selhurst Park on Sunday. Do they need to add to what looks a slightly slim squad in places before then?

Goalless, then, at Stamford Bridge - which always felt likely after that Eberechi Eze free kick was ruled out with neither side able to test the opposition goalkeeper at all often enough. Chelsea will rue not making more of a bright opening, or finding a winner in that late flurry, but victory at that stage would probably have been undeserved.

One last chance for Chelsea. Cole Palmer wins a corner.

Tyrick Mitchell shows his experience and strength, nudging Estevao at the right time to prevent the youngster keeping the ball in play. Crystal Palace have been very solid defensively for most of this game, prevent too many clear chances for Chelsea.

Another chance for Santos! His header bounces agonisingly near Liam Delap but is collected by a cool Dean Henderson.