Cahill urges Chelsea to stay calm

Chelsea captain Gary Cahill has urged his team-mates to remain calm following their surprise 2-1 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace.

Antonio Conte’s men started Saturday’s encounter at Stamford Bridge in fine fashion as Cesc Fabregas needed just five minutes to open the scoring.

However, Palace hit back swiftly via Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke to take home the three points.

The shock defeat saw Tottenham close the gap to seven points following their 2-0 win over Burnley, but Cahill sees no reason for panic just yet ahead of Wednesday’s home clash with Manchester City.

“We are disappointed as we had a chance to chalk another three points off,” Cahill told Match of the Day.

“We have to regroup. It is a little setback but we need to focus on Wednesday. We need to keep calm and go again. The gap is still there. It puts emphasis on Wednesday. It adds a bit more pressure but the boys respond to that.

“They made it difficult. It was a crazy 15 minutes [but] once we settled it was one-way traffic.

“I hate possession stats. It is about putting the ball in the net.”