Richards: We embraced the battle
Chris Richards was proud of Palace's efforts after they began the new Premier League season with a goalless draw away at Chelsea.
Richards and his defensive colleagues barely put a foot wrong in the blazing Stamford Bridge sunshine, as Palace started the season with a deserved clean sheet.
And it could have been more for the Eagles had Ebere Eze's stunning first-half free-kick not been chalked off by the VAR.
Despite the frustration of seeing that goal ruled out, Richards said it was still a positive result to begin the new campaign with.
"We worked well together," he said after the game. "We've seen Chelsea throughout the last season and in pre-season, also at the Club World Cup, they have a very dangerous attack.
"So we knew that if we could alleviate them scoring goals, we would have a good chance. You know a draw is still a good point regardless.
"It's a good way to start the season and I think we can move forward with this performance in the second half.
"One thing we talked about before the game was embracing the toughness that Chelsea are going to bring. It wasn't going to perfect, but as long as we could keep a clean sheet, that's number one for us."
On the issue of Eze's disallowed free-kick, the American reflected that he hadn't seen an issue with the goal in live play.
"We're pretty disappointed," he added. "I think everybody in the stadium thought it was a goal and somehow VAR saw something else, you know you live and die by VAR these days.
"But regardless, it was it was a good free-kick and hopefully we get a few more of those."