The goal came on the back of a good start to the second half for Roy Hodgson’s side after they had gone in at the break trailing to an Alvaro Morata opening goal of the afternoon.
Reflecting on the defeat, Townsend found it a difficult one to take against a Chelsea side still unbeaten this season.
“We came out in the second half firing as we wanted to get in their faces and not give them time on the ball. We did that and scored the goal and then unfortunately they scored from a set-piece which took the game away from us.
“We showed good fighting spirit in the second half but again we have just came up a little bit short.”
The Eagles scorer was frustrated that conceding from a set play once again put the visitors on the back foot.
“When you play the top teams the minimum you have to do is not concede from set plays because they are good enough to cut you open so if you are going to lose then let it be via a great goal from one of their world class players but I’m sure we will learn from that. We will work on it and go again next week and learn from the mistakes we made today.”
The 27 year old felt that the equaliser was nothing more than the Eagles deserved but was frustrated that the contest didn’t stay on level terms for long.
“It was a nice move and a great ball from Macca (James McArthur) in to me and I slotted it away and at the time we had the momentum and pressing them high up the pitch which saw us confident that if there was a winner it was going to be us.
“We got hit with a sucker punch not too much longer after and when teams like Chelsea get ahead it’s incredibly difficult to get back in it, not only once but twice and unfortunately we couldn’t do it a second time.”
The defeat at the Bridge sees the Eagles without a win in six matches but Townsend believes the squad need to take the positives into the next game against Tottenham Hotspur.
“It’s difficult, we are playing well enough and creating chances but have been unlucky on one or two occasions, last week we battled back against a team who had won 11 on the spin and even though we couldn’t do it today the good thing about the Premier League is there always another game not too far away and that is against Tottenham at home and the crowd will create another good atmosphere to help us get a great result.”
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