Crystal Palace 1-0 Chelsea: John Terry own goal blows Premier League title race wide open

Action Images / John Sibley

Big moment: John Terry scores an own goal at Selhurst Park

With all three of the Premier League's title contenders visiting Selhurst Park in

Crystal Palace's final four home games, the need for the Eagles to nab a first point of the season against the top six was greater than ever.

Thanks to a John Terry own goal they nabbed all three and Tony Pulis - the man Jose Mourinho had tipped to win Manager of the Year pre-match - looks ever-closer to completing his miracle job in SE25.

Mourinho brought in Fernando Torres for Samuel Eto'o up front and opted for a robust midfield of David Luiz and Nemanja Matic to combat the physicality of Palace's consonant-hungry and rippling duo; Mile Jedinak and Kagisho Dikgacoi.

As it happened, they needn't have just been worried about those two as Palace put in a feisty performance full of the fight and gusto you'd expect from a Pulis outfit.

Wingers Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon were both booked in the early stages for crunching challenges as Palace looked to win the ball back high up the pitch and those cautions somewhat stifled the hosts' ability to pressure Chelsea.

As the first half wore on, the visitors should have gained increasing control. Instead, they became evermore disjointed and resorted to trying to hit Palace on the counter-attack with long, raking passes.

The Eagles grew in confidence and should have scored when Bolasie somehow failed to convert Puncheon's drilled cross. They were then somewhat questionably denied a penalty when England defender Gary Cahill uprooted Cameron Jerome, but continued to press on and most notably tested Petr Cech from a Jedinak free-kick on the half-hour mark.

With the verve and skill of Andre Schurrle and Eden Hazard always likely to cause problems for Pulis' men, Chelsea's counters audibly set the boisterous home crowd on edge, but some solid defending saw Palace through to the break well worth the 0-0 scoreline.

Scott Heavey

No joy: Fernando Torres endured another frustrating afternoon

Mourinho sought to give his side more control by introducing Oscar for David Luiz at the break, but the Eagles continued to threaten and should have taken the lead when Cameron Jerome glanced the ever-troublesome Bolasie's dangerous cross agonizingly across goal.

But the hosts would soon get the opener, John Terry diverting Joel Ward's looping 56th-minute cross past his own keeper at the near post.

Selhurst erupted, as parts of Liverpool and Manchester surely did, and a smouldering Jose Mourinho acted quickly to address what could have been a critical blow to his side's title chances.

The ineffective Frank Lampard was replaced by Mohamed Salah as the Portuguese attempted to inject some dynamism to his floundering attack, and Chelsea moved onto their third tactical system of the day.

Yet the hosts failed to get a grip on the game and could so easily have fallen two goals behind when Cameron Jerome's strong running created a chance for Jason Puncheon, whose left-footed snapshot dribbled narrowly wide of the post with Cech beaten.

Finally the title-contenders began to grow into the game, but clear chances were difficult to come by as a clearly irritated Mourinho began to miserably patrol his technical area.

His final change was to throw on Demba Ba for the increasingly anonymous Schurrle, while Pulis attempted to shut up shop by replacing the potent attacking threat of Yannick Bolasie with Duracell bunny Stuart O'Keefe.

Chelsea's desperation converted itself into chances, but in Julian Speroni they found a man in sensational form, particularly in saving from Hazard's point-blank effort in the 73rd minute.

With the Blues pushing up, Palace began to create their own openings, Jerome clattering the post having bettered Cech in a one-on-one before Joe Ledley's volley bounced inches past the far post.

For all Palace's energy, the visitors' body language told a story of a team who knew that they could be about to suffer a season-defining defeat. All sloped shoulders and furious hand gestures while Mourinho, hands in pockets, appeared angrily resigned to the result.

This frustration boiled over when the Portuguese snapped at a ball-boy in the closing stages, something for which he quickly apologised, but he was ultimately helpless as the final whistle blew on Chelsea and possibly their title chances.

Chelsea's title challenge has run aground south of the river. This derby was supposed to be awkward rather than treacherous but, eclipsed byCrystal Palace's sheer refusal to wilt, the side who had led going into the weekend ended up feeling forlorn. José Mourinho strode from the pitch consoling a distraught Gary Cahill, one of the few visiting players to deserve better, and straight into the home dressing room to congratulate the victors.

This was a result to confound logic even in a gloriously unpredictable top flight. Palace had secured a solitary point from 14 games against thePremier League's top nine before this match, their winless streak stretching back to the start of February with goals having long since dried up. They had not managed one from open play since that last success though, befitting a contest that deviated from the prescribed script, Chelsea scored one for them here. John Terry's own goal early in the second half had Mourinho writing off his team's chances of regaining the title. He scribbled one word down on a piece of paper, preferring not to damn his own out loud, when asked what his team needs if they are to improve. "Balls," read the note. That summed it up.

This was as weak from Chelsea as it was powerful from Palace. The hosts had resisted through the early stages, emulating their rugged first-half displays against Manchester United and Arsenal here this season, and even mustered a flurry of half-chances just before the interval to offer a reminder they might glean greater reward thereafter. Seven minutes after the
restart and their endeavours were answered.

The excellent Joel Ward, fed by Yannick Bolasie's pass, summoned a fine cross towards Joe Ledley at the near post only for the Chelsea captain to leap in aerial challenge and flick the ball beyond a stranded Petr Cech. Selhurst Park erupted, the din merely fuelling the home side's conviction. They would go on to miss clearer chances on the counter-attack, striking the post through Cameron Jerome, as their opponents became desperate.

It was the reality that few had seen this coming that took the breath away. Palace have been industrious since Tony Pulis's arrival but had remained ineffective, even blunt, against the division's better opposition. Indeed, theirs had started to feel like a steady decline towards the cut-off. Yet here they countered with verve and threat, and defended with such energy.

"Our results had dropped off, even if the performances had been OK, but to beat Chelsea will give everyone a boost to push on for the last seven games," said Pulis. "The Premier League is the most competitive in the world. The top teams have to play well or they can come unstuck."

Chelsea endured just that, the repercussions of failure critical. Mourinho bemoaned some of his key performers having "disappeared" in certain matches, when opponents have pressed and harried as Palace did so effectively. The same had happened, he suggested, in all their league defeats this term bar the loss at Aston Villa in their previous away game that he will always insist was born of a freakishly poor performance from the referee.

Certainly, key players were anonymous. Fernando Torres's sole contribution of note was to lift a lob over a gaping net as full-time approached, the striker having been carelessly gifted possession by Stuart O'Keefe. Furious occasions such as this tend to pass the Spaniard by and, other than that chance, he never represented a threat in the area.

Yet he was not alone in fluffing his lines. André Schürrle was thwarted at his clearest sight of goal by Ward's lunge, the ball dribbling wide, but none of the visitors' forwards had the bite to make their mark. Even Eden Hazard was peripheral for long periods, briefly rousing himself to curl a wicked shot through a clutch of bodies just after Terry's error that Julian Speroni did well to palm away. The Argentinian has been consistently impressive as one of the division's busier goalkeepers and he managed to better that save with another from the Belgian before the end, Oscar's choked shot having landed at Hazard's feet. The din that greeted the save almost matched the one that heralded the home side's lead.

There were anxious moments before the end, Chelsea flinging bodies forward in search of parity only to be caught too often on the break with Palace, somehow, contriving to miss a succession of chances to settle the match.

Mourinho's words of advice with a ballboy he considered to have been time-wasting added to the drama, though the final whistle, after four minutes of stoppage time, brought relief. Not since Ian Wright's lob in the autumn of 1990 had Palace won against these opponents in the league.

"For their spirit, their commitment, their desire, they deserved it," Mourinho said. "This is the kind of defeat where we can only blame ourselves."

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