Chelsea lose at home to Crystal Palace, Liverpool beat Everton

Chelsea led after five minutes as Cesc Fabregas swept a long pass out to Eden Hazard, who took on his defenders and then waited for support – which came from Fabregas, who raced into the area and finished off the Belgian’s cross. We faced a team today with strong players.

Having recovered from the shock of Palace’s quickfire double Chelsea soon began to lay siege to Wayne Hennessey’s goal and the Wales global pulled off a fine save to deny Diego Costa after Hazard and Fabregas had combined brilliantly to set up the chance. At this moment in time we are safe but there’s still nine games to go.

Spurs are leading the unlikely chase to reel in Chelsea, closing to within seven points after a 2-0 win at Burnley on Saturday. “Otherwise you must fight, you must play every game to try to win, because in England easy games don’t exist”.

This defeat cuts Chelsea’s lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points, after Tottenham Hotspur won 2-0 at Burnley.

Conte was philospical in defeat, his side’s first loss at Stamford Bridge since September and said his team must now concentrate on the next clash against Manchester City on Thursday morning (AEST).

But speedy Palace, who had won their previous three games to climb away from the relegation zone, hit back with two in two minutes, Zaha angling a shot through Chelsea’s defence to equalise and feeding Benteke who chipped home.

The hosts created a number of chances to at least salvage a draw, but Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey showed his class with a string of fine saves.

Jose Mourinho was left in a grumpy mood again after his toothless Manchester United, while extending their unbeaten league sequence to 19 matches, slipped up in the race for Champions League places, held to a goalless draw at Old Trafford by West Bromwich Albion. “It’s a good team with good players and we are starting to believe”, he told BBC radio.

Hull helped their survival chances by beating West Ham 2-1 on goals from Andrew Robertson and Andrea Ranocchia.

First off, though, Liverpool continued their dominance over Everton in the Merseyside victory with a 3-1 win at Anfield.

Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy scored as defending champions Leicester beat Stoke 2-0 for their fourth straight league win to move six points above relegation and Sunderland remain bottom of the league after losing 1-0 at Watford.

“Nobody expected it”, said Palace boss Sam Allardyce, who has never been relegated from the Premier League as a manager.