At the end of the football season, clubs go back at the games across the season and analyse the key moments where a momentum shift took place. These can include a late penalty, a shock win or a surprise loss, anything which can affect confidence, momentum or the table.
One of the potentially defining moments of the 2016/2017 title race was the Chelsea v Crystal Palace game. Crystal Palace who are sponsored by Mansion Group (who manage many other football teams and corporations like Casino.com), took a gamble in December by appointing former England manager Sam Allardyce.
His side were in trouble coming in to the game at Stamford Bridge.
The game was expected to be a simple Chelsea victory against struggling London rivals, but we got a shock to our system.
The defeat meant that the odds of a Spurs title victory came down significantly and a run of Tottenham victories really started to pile the pressure on.
Chelsea v Crystal Palace
Chelsea took an early lead through Cesc Fabregas but were stunned by goals from Christian Benteke and Wilfred Zaha after just ten minutes. These goals set a platform that a well drilled Sam Allardyce side were able to hold on to for a memorable victory. just minutes later
Victory over Middlesbrough means that we are just one win away from lifting the Premier League title. Things looked a little less certain just a few weeks ago after the Chelsea v Crystal Palace game when an expected procession became a battle.
A win that Crystal Palance badly needed, but that threw everything else wide open.
Chelsea then had high-pressure games against Manchester City at home and Manchester United and Everton away.
Defeat to Manchester United pulled things even closer but the wins over City and Everton closed what many assumed would be open doors for Tottenham to close the door.
Fortunately, we are unlikely to look back on this game as a chance missed. It would need a few colossally bad moments to prevent Antonio Conte’s side lifting the Premier League trophy.
