Chelsea held by Palace as Manchester United fail to fire

CHELSEA suffered a Fifa Club World Cup hangover as they were fortunate to escape with a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace in their Premier League opener yesterday.

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Palace were denied an early goal when Eberechi Eze's free-kick was ruled out following a VAR review, with Marc Guehi adjudged to have obstructed the Chelsea wall.

New Chelsea signing Estevão came closest to finding a breakthrough for the home side, but the newly-crowned world champions were blunt in attack against a disciplined Palace defence.

The Eagles’ key duo of Guehi and Eze started despite mounting speculation that the England internationals are set to join Liverpool and Tottenham, respectively.

"As long as they are 100% committed, they will play, as they are so good," said Palace boss Oliver Glasner. "They didn't just show they are great footballers, but they are great persons, and that’s what I expected."

Eze thought he had opened the scoring with a blistering free-kick that had too much power for Robert Sánchez.