Winger Andros Townsend admitted Crystal Palace were surprised by the quality of Chelsea’s new signings during their 4-0 loss at Stamford Bridge last weekend.
Frank Lampard deployed five summer signings in the starting line-up against Palace. They included goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who made his Chelsea debut.
However, Chelsea had to wait until the 50th minute to finally find a hole in Palace’s defensive fortress thanks to Ben Chilwell’s superb half-volley.
From then on it was a much more open game as Palace were forced to come out of their shell. Eventually the Blues strolled to four goals and a clean sheet.
Andros Townsend reveals ‘welcome’ plan for new signings
Andros Townsend argued the scoreline failed to reflect the whole game. However, he admitted their plan to “welcome” Chelsea’s new signings didn’t work.
He told talkSPORT: “I think it was a false result – it wasn’t a 4-0 – but they did surprise us.
“They had a lot of new players and we were expecting to catch them cold, catch them early in their Premier League careers.
“We did that in the first half but in the second their quality showed through and they are a side who will be right up there come the end of the season.”
While Townsend believes Chelsea are a stronger side than they were last season, he said they weren’t up there with Liverpool and Manchester City yet.
“I do think it will be a little bit closer,” he added.
“But I still think Liverpool and City are far and away ahead of the other sides.
“I think there will be more teams chasing them and they will be bunched up. It will be interesting who takes third and fourth place.
“But I can’t look beyond Liverpool and Man City this season.”
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