HE’S proving to be a bold tactician. Blues manager Tom Tuchel took a rare, risky gamble with a triple substitution in the 74th minute of the London derby against Palace, breaking the deadlock at Selhurst Park and nicking all three points at the death.

The sides had seemed evenly matched until Jorginho, N’Golo Kane and Malang Sarr were subbed for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovacic and Marcos Alonso in a dramatic shake-up like the ones Jose Mourinho occasionally did.

In under a minute the ball was in the Palace net as Hakim Ziyech, going through a real purple patch for Chelsea, fired home after Romelu Lukaku’s shot had been parried by Jack Butland… only for ref David Coote to rule it out for offside after a wait for the VAR verdict.

But it galvanised Chelsea, and in the 89th minute Ziyech did indeed score before celebrating (with his now-trademark blank face) in front of the Blues fans massed alongside the goal.

A long diagonal ball by Alonso had teed him up, and the volley was true.

For Palace, the ever-improving Michael Olise was again outstanding. Surely he’s future captain material at Selhurst Park.

The 20-year-old has a dazzling style of crossing the ball or taking free kicks. He doesn’t so much kick the ball as punch it forward, with no long swing of his foot.

He’s precise, whole-hearted and majestic in and out of possession in the centre of the park. If Roman Abramovich had any thoughts of a new midfielder, Olise would set him back a bit… but would well repay the investment.