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It was a frustrating afternoon for Chelsea as the current champions of the world looked anything but for large stretches of the match.

Crystal Palace have often provided an easy afternoon for the Blues with Chelsea picking up eight consecutive wins against the Eagles ahead of the latest contest.

The tie they had back in August was a day of optimism in the sunshine as Trevoh Chalobah announced himself to the Premier League with a fine strike from distance and the Stamford Bridge crowd took in a 3-0 win knowing that Romelu Lukaku was waiting in the wings after completing his £97.5 million transfer in the days before.

Few have enjoyed games against Palace more than Christian Pulisic however. The 23-year-old had scored five goals in four starts against the south London side and delivered some exciting performances to match.

Ahead of the game Tuchel told the official Chelsea website: "It exists you cannot hide from the fact that it exists that some players score more against certain teams. Maybe once the belief is starting and growing, maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. First of all, Christian deserves by performance in the final to stay in the group and team. Let's see if we decide like this, if it's like this I have no problem if he can extend his run against them."

Pulisi