Furthermore, Law 13 of the laws of the game state that “where three or more defending team players form a ‘wall’, all attacking team players must remain at least 1 m (1 yd) from the ‘wall’ until the ...

Their pursuit of Eze has been long and arduous, and to see the process wrecked in its final stages would have rendered those efforts a complete waste of time.

Chelsea came into the tie off the back of a brief but encouraging pre-season campaign, where they beat both Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan, but could not carry that form into competitive play.

A pair of trophy-toting Londoners stalled Sunday when Chelsea drew Crystal Palace 0-0 at Stamford Bridge. It’s a fine point for Palace but the Eagles may lament an overturned Eberechi Eze free kick goal.

Eberechi Eze fired Crystal Palace into the lead in the 13th minute, powering a free kick past goalkeeper Robert Sánchez.

Palace, meanwhile, continued an already historic year.