Robert Sanchez explains why Chelsea struggled against Crystal Palace

Robert Sanchez has revealed where he thought Chelseastruggled against Crystal Palace on Sunday as Enzo Maresca's side were held to a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues struggled to create many clear cut chances against the Eagles, particularly in the first half, with the match coming just 35 days after the Club World Cup final in the United States. Palace were much sharper in periods, with Chelsea's short pre-season - which included playing just two friendly matches - clearly still having an impact on player performances.

Chelsea also went into the match without a number of key players, particularly in defence. Levi Colwill is likely to be out for most of the season while neither Tosin Adarabioyo nor Wesley Fofana was available, meaning a makeshift central-defensive partnership of Trevoh Chalobah and 19-year-old Josh Acheampong, who impressed on just his third league start, was deployed.

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However, it was in midfield where Chelsea struggled for creativity, with little space afforded to central players Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez. "We've got quality on the ball and Palace hold behind, in the midfield," Sanchez told the club’s website. "So to play out was not difficult, from my view, but to find Moises and Enzo in midfield was hard, so we had to play a bit more wide.

"But I think the boys did what they had to do, they created the chances, and with different margins we could have scored one or two goals. We had a couple of weeks of pretty intense pre-season training and unluckily we got a couple of injuries to very important players for us.

"But I think the boys that have come into the team have shown up. Everybody is ready to play in this team, everybody has the quality, and we kept the clean sheet."

There were two full debuts from amongst the seven summer signings involved with Maresca's first-team squad. Striker Joao Pedro and winger Jamie Gittens both started but enjoyed limited impact, though there was more promise from substitutes Liam Delap, who replaced Pedro and had a chance to win it late on, and 18-year-old winger Estevao Willian, who showed signs of his potential on the right when he came on in the second half.

The major taking point came when Palace's Eberechi Eze, making possibly one of his final appearances for the club with talks ongoing over a move to Tottenham, hammered in a first-half free-kick which was disallowed due to Marc Guehi standing too close to the defensive wall. Chelsea's best chances fell to Chalobah, who blazed over from six yards, and substitute Andrey Santos, also making his league debut, who did likewise in stoppage time.

"Happy and frustrated," said Sanchez of the draw. "I'm happy because I think the team created some chances, I think we played well and at the end of the day it was down to slim margins."