Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea: N'Golo Kante's goal sees off poor Eagles

Chelsea increased the gap between themselves and fifth-placed Arsenal to five points as N'Golo Kante's second-half strike earned them victory at Crystal Palace.

Kante scored the only goal of the game in the 51st minute when he broke forward from midfield to convert David Luiz's throughball.

There were few clear-cut chances as the Blues dominated possession and Palace sat back hoping to catch the opposition on the counter-attack - a tactic which failed to work as Roy Hodgson's Eagles took 85 minutes to register their first effort. That is now two successive games without a goal.

Chelsea's Willian came close to scoring with a free-kick that struck the post, and Ross Barkley also hit the woodwork with a hooked effort.

Fourth-placed Blues now have 43 points, one behind City and two behind Spurs. Palace remain in 14th with 19 points.

• Reaction from Selhurst Park

Reassigned Kante sees off Eagles

The Kante of 2018-19 is made up of different spec to previous models. Gone is the role of anchor man in midfield - the ball-winner who would allow other midfielders to make forays into the opposition's final third.

The remodelled version has been given permission to burst forward from the right of a midfield trio. During a largely nondescript opening 45 minutes, he made two runs into the Palace box - the first resulting in a strike that missed Vicente Guaita's far post by two feet.

Sarri's perseverance with the tactic paid off six minutes after the break when Kante grabbed his third goal of the season after again breaking from midfield.

This time it was defender Luiz the provider, with a threaded pass that found the Frenchman whose shot had enough power to beat the hand of the former Valencia keeper.

Willian also went close for the Blues with a free-kick that came off the Palace post, while fellow midfielder Barkley hooked a shot from close range that grazed the woodwork.

It was a competent if unremarkable display from Sarri's side, but they did not have to break sweat against a lifeless Palace attack.

Defensive Palace forget to attack

This was an utterly forgettable display by Palace.

They defended admirably but appeared to show little desire to put pressure on the opposition backline.

Their first effort on goal came in the 85th minute when Wilfried Zaha fired wide and high, before substitute Connor Wickham's strike from six yards resulted in a similar outcome.

Hodgson grimaced from the sidelines as must have the Palace supporters inside Selhurst Park.

Man of the match - N'Golo Kante (Chelsea)

Another good away day with Sarri - the stats

• Chelsea picked up their first win in an away league London derby since August 2017 (2-1 v Spurs), ending a run of five without victory (L3, D2).

• Palace failed to record a single shot on target in a Premier League home game for the first time since March 2017 v Watford.

• Chelsea have won three consecutive Premier League away games for the first time under Sarri, last doing so in April under Antonio Conte.

• Only Tottenham (nine) and Liverpool (eight) have won more away Premier League games this season than Chelsea (seven).

• Kante scored his third league goal of the season - his best-ever return in a single campaign in the top five European leagues.

• Eden Hazard created more goalscoring chances than any other player in this match (three) and as a result surpassed 100 chances created in the Premier League in 2018 (101); which is 23 more than any other player in the competition this calendar year.

What's next?

Chelsea are at home to Southampton and Palace are at Wolves - both matches are on Wednesday and kick off at 19:45 GMT.