Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new players is proving no guarantee of victories for Chelsea in the Premier League.
A 1-1 home draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday meant Chelsea has won just one of its first three league matches this season — even if that was a 6-2 rout of Wolverhampton last weekend.
Eberechi Eze’s fine curling shot from the edge of the area in the 53rd minute secured a point for Palace, which spent most of the summer transfer window desperately trying to keep its best players. Eze fits into the category.
Chelsea, on the other hand, brought in 12 players — at a cost of around $290 million — in the latest huge outlay by its American investors. Only one new signing, Pedro Neto, started against Palace at Stamford Bridge and it was two players signed last year who combined for the 25th-minute opener as Nicolas Jackson tapped in from Cole Palmer’s pass.
Chelsea has four points from a possible nine, having opened the season by losing to Manchester City, and manager Enzo Maresca said “the direction is the correct one” for his team.
“Probably one thing that has to be clear: Chelsea three years ago won the Champions League but now it is not that kind of Chelsea,” he said. “So now sometimes if you don’t win, it is normal.”
NEWCASTLE SNATCHES WIN
Newcastle beat Tottenham 2-1 — and stayed unbeaten on seven points — thanks to a 78th-minute winner by Alexander Isak that came against the run of play at St. James’ Park.
Dan Burn’s own-goal in the 56th brought Spurs back into the match after Harvey Barnes’ strike in the 37th.
Tottenham dominated the second half, hitting the crossbar off Pedro Porro’s deflected cross and seeing James Maddison force a great save out of Nick Pope, before conceding off a simple ball through the heart of the defense. Jacob Murphy ran through and played a pass across to Isak, who couldn’t miss in front of an empty goal from inside the six-yard box.
In another positive for Newcastle, second-half substitute Sandro Tonali made his first Premier League appearance since October after returning following a 10-month ban for breaching betting regulations. The Italy midfielder’s first game back was at Nottingham Forest in the League Cup on Wednesday.
UNITED-LIVERPOOL
Manchester United hosts Liverpool later Sunday in what is historically the biggest game in English soccer.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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