Chelsea was held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday in the team’s first competitive match as the club world champion.
A month after stunning Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final, Chelsea toiled in its league opener at Stamford Bridge after a short preseason because of its exertions in the United States.
Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, hit the ground running with a 3-1 win over Brentford, with striker Chris Wood — the team’s top scorer last season with 20 goals — netting twice in the first half either side of a goal on debut by Dan Ndoye.
Later, Manchester United hosts Arsenal in the marquee match of the opening round, which has already seen wins for likely title contenders Liverpool and Manchester City.
Eze’s farewell?
Eberechi Eze has been heavily linked with a move to Tottenham so the England midfielder might have been making his final appearance for Palace.
He almost marked it with a goal.
In the 13th minute, Eze smashed a direct free kick past Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez from the edge of the area but the goal was ruled out after a video review spotted an infringement by Palace captain Marc Guehi as he attempted to push aside Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo in the defensive wall.
The Premier League confirmed Guehi was standing less than one meter (yard) from the wall as the shot was taken, which is not allowed.
Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer, stars for Chelsea in the Club World Cup were quiet. The hosts lacked intensity because they’ve only been back in training for a couple of weeks, while Palace has had a long preseason and was coming off beating Liverpool on penalties in the Community Shield last weekend.
Hot Wood
Chris Wood started quickly last season in the best goalscoring top-flight campaign of his career, and he needed just five minutes to open his account this time round, making the most of a poor clearance at a corner to give Forest the lead against Brentford.
Ndoye headed in a second in the 42nd minute and Wood rounded the goalkeeper in first-half stoppage time to stroke in a third.
Igor Thiago converted a late penalty for a consolation for Brentford, which has sold star forward Bryan Mbeumo to Manchester United and didn’t play Yoane Wissa — a striker linked with a move to Newcastle.
Jota tribute
All matches on Sunday featured a period of silence before kickoff as a tribute to Diogo Jota and Andre Silva, the brothers who were killed in a car crash in Spain last month. Jota was a player for Liverpool at the time.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
