Palace boss Patrick Vieira wants squad improvement before the end of the window

Crystal Palace head coach Patrick Vieira insists that he “didn’t learn very much” from his side’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Champions League winners Chelsea on Saturday afternoon, and wants additions to his squad before the transfer window closes.

In Vieira’s first competitive match as the Eagles’ boss, his side were swept away by Thomas Tuchel’s deadly Blues, who cut through the South Londoners with ease.

The hosts opened the scoring through Marcus Alonso. The Spanish wing-back fired a sublime free-kick from the edge of the area past Vicente Guaita in the 26th minute.

Tuchel’s side doubled their lead just before half-time when Christian Pulisic capitalised on a loose ball inside the Palace penalty area. The home side wrapped up all three points when Trevoh Chalobah was allowed time and space to fire from long-range past the helpless Guaita.

Vieira, who suffered his first defeat after an unbeaten pre-season, said: “I didn’t learn very much because I knew what we were missing. With the chairman and the sporting director, we analysed the squad, and we knew what we were missing. The game today confirmed that we are too short. We will work hard to improve the squad.”

Vieira named four academy graduates on the bench at Stamford Bridge, with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi making his senior debut in the 77th minute when he replaced Jairo Riedewald. However, it only served as an indication that Palace require reinforcements before the end of the transfer window.

Speaking about the young players and the possibility of bringing more players in, Vieira said: “When you look at the bench we had today, those young players did really well in the pre-season, but they are not ready for that level.

“That just shows that we still need to work and to work hard to bring in a couple of players because we are a little bit short in numbers.”