Five short weeks after winning the Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium, Chelsea returned to competitive play at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, banners celebrating their latest championship adorned around their stadium. The Blues, though, swapped an impressive 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain last month for a sluggish 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace, the scoreline a perfect reflection of the performance.

External factors likely played a sizable role in Chelsea's underwhelming showing on Sunday, the Club World Cup creating wonky preseason schedules for the European teams that made deep runs. Enzo Maresca's side, for example, played an 11-month season, took three weeks off, and had just 13 days of preseason preparation before facing Palace on Sunday, while the opponent had a much more tradit

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