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How did Crystal Palace beat Chelsea? Jamie Carragher analyses

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Jamie Carragher analyses how Crystal Palace beat Chelsea

How did Crystal Palace beat Chelsea to earn their first win of the season? Jamie Carragher picked out the key factors on Monday Night Football.

After losing their opening seven Premier League matches, Palace won 2-1 against champions Chelsea at Selhurst Park on Saturday thanks to an early own goal and then a winner from Wilfried Zaha.

So how did they do it? Carragher said the international break was important, along with boss Roy Hodgson's narrow tactics.

"The international break was an absolute godsend for Roy Hodgson and Crystal Palace," said Carragher, with Palace having just two players from their last starting XI away on international duty.

Crystal Palace stats MNF

"A lot of teams don't like international breaks but I think it worked in his favour. I know Roy Hodgson very well from working with him at Liverpool and he wants to be on the training pitch, drilling players day-in, day-out, with double sessions at times, telling them exactly what he wants. And he got what he wanted.

"Hodgson doesn't like wingers, he likes wide, working midfielders. It was almost a 4-2-2-2 system. [Jeffrey] Schlupp and [James] McArthur were the two wide players and you see how narrow they are, even in possession. Then two strikers, in [Andros] Townsend and Zaha, who are wingers really. The front six is so narrow, that's Roy Hodgson to a 'T'."

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Hit play on the video at the top of the page to watch Carragher's MNF analysis of Palace's win over Chelsea.

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