Pundits and professionals alike were all branding the Crystal Palace v Chelsea game as a genuine hiccup contender for the west London big spenders. Palace were hoping to assert their name as a bogey team for Jose Mourinho’s men.

‘If last season’s games were a Champions League clash then Palace would have gone through,’ is what I say to all my Chelsea supporting friends after giving them a scare at Stamford Bridge with a 2-1 defeat followed by a 1-0 home victory which rocked the Premier League.

At about 3.40pm and despite being a goal down, 25,000 Palace fans would have shared the same belief they had a chance of getting one over on Chelsea again, as the visitors were reduced to 10 men. Such hopes were dashed as fast as you can play ‘Glad All Over’ on your iPod, as Palace were also pegged back to ten men almost immediately after.

Damien Delaney has been a key figure during the rise of Crystal Palace ever since his move from Ipswich, but the Irishman can be the only one to blame for Saturday’s defeat to Chelsea. A handful of brainless decisions led to a number of key moments in the game for Chelsea, as he gave a needless foul 25 yards from goal which Oscar dispatched beautifully.

From that moment onwards you could see Delaney had lost his head and although it would have been unlikely to substitute him just five minutes in, it would have been wise for Warnock to withdraw him off after he picked up his first yellow card in the 30th minute. In Warnock’s post-match interview, he claimed he was about to remove Delaney from the action. But just like many of Warnock’s post-match comments, the validity of his words can be questioned as there was certainly no evidence of Adrian Mariappa being prepared to come on.  

Palace looked bright on the break throughout and it would be fair to go as far as saying the result was a disappointing one despite facing an unbeaten Chelsea. Fraizer Campbell was the spearhead of our attack and had one of his best games in a Palace shirt - his improvement in form has seen him notch three in his last four games.

This is certainly promising after a sluggish start to life at Palace, but one can argue whether he’s the right man for the job against bottom half sides. In an interview on the Palace website he spoke of his impressive record against the ‘big’ clubs and perhaps he should be deployed only against such teams as he rarely steps up to the plate otherwise.

Wilfried Zaha was unfortunate to be on the bench, especially as Yannick Bolasie was still in Africa on Thursday morning and famously struggles in the game after international duty. Zaha continued to enhance his chances of a start as he put in another brilliant substitute performance. His display against Chelsea certainly warrants a starting position against West Brom, particularly with Jason Puncheon being out of sorts.

Despite Campbell finding a flurry of form, we haven’t seen enough of Marouane Chamakh in recent weeks. He remains an integral part of our success and should certainly be given a starting place whether it is for Campbell or for a midfielder.

My starting XI v WBA: Speroni, Ward, Kelly, Hangeland, Fryers, Zaha, Jedinak, McArthur, Bolsaie, Chamakh, Campbell.