Robert Sanchez admits Chelsea struggled to play through Crystal Palace midfield

Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez felt Chelsea struggled to play through Crystal Palace’s midfield during Sunday’s goalless draw at Stamford Bridge that launched their Premier League season.

There was a distinct absence of creativity from Enzo Maresca’s side, particularly in the first half, with the match coming just 35 days after the Club World Cup final in the United States.

That meant a truncated pre-season, with the Blues playing just two warm-up matches, and against Palace there were clear signs that the team were yet to find match sharpness.

There were also injuries to key players, particularly in defence. Levi Colwill is likely to be out for most of the season while neither Tosin Adarabioyo nor Wesley Fofana was available, meaning a makeshift central-defensive partnership of Trevoh Chalobah and 19-year-old Josh Acheampong, who impressed on just his third league start.

However, it was in midfield where Chelsea struggled for mastery, with little space afforded to central players Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, forcing the play out wide.

“We’ve got quality on the ball and Palace hold behind, in the midfield,” Sanchez told the club’s website. “So to play out was not difficult, from my view, but to find Moises and Enzo in midfield was hard, so we had to play a bit more wide.

“But I think the boys did what they had to do, they created the chances, and with different margins we could have scored one or two goals.

“We had a couple of weeks of pretty intense pre-season training and unluckily we got a couple of injuries to very important players for us.

“But I think the boys that have come into the team have shown up. Everybody is ready to play in this team, everybody has the quality, and we kept the clean sheet.”

There were two full debuts from amongst the seven summer signings involved with Maresca’s first-team squad.

Striker Joao Pedro and winger Jamie Gittens both started but enjoyed limited impact, though there was more promise from substitutes Liam Delap, who replaced Pedro and had a chance to win it late on, and 18-year-old Winger Estevao Willian, who showed signs of his potential on the right when he came on in the second half.

The only major taking point came when Palace’s Eberechi Eze, making possibly one of his final appearances for the club with talks ongoing over a move to Tottenham, hammered in a first-half free-kick which was disallowed due to Marc Guehi standing too close to the defensive wall.

Chelsea’s best chances fell to Chalobah, who blazed over from six yards, and substitute Andrey Santos, also making his league debut, who did likewise in stoppage time.

“Happy and frustrated,” said Sanchez of the draw. “I’m happy because I think the team created some chances, I think we played well and at the end of the day it was down to slim margins.”