Three capital sides played European Champions League fixtures this week and overall, it went fairly well.

Six games into the tournament and they have four wins and one draw from six games.

In addition, Crystal Palace endured their first ever voyage into Europe in the Conference League.

Chelsea withstood the return of Jose Mourinho to hold off a spirited Benfica 1-0. They defended fairly well especially in the second half, any by the time Joao Pedro received their obligatory red card, there were barely seconds left.

While not actually being at West Ham levels of crisis, there were certainly murmurs about Enzo Maresca’s position ahead of the match. Danish TV pundit Peter Schmeichel said:

“If Chelsea don’t even win this, Maresca is in with a chance of not having a job tomorrow”

Robert Calcutt is a sports Writer@talkSPORT and @AbsoluteChelsea as well as being the former London Editor of this site:

He thinks Chelsea are hovering above crisis point for now:

“I wouldn’t say crisis, I would say ‘alarm bells may start to ring’.

“Individual errors and a lack of discipline have affected Chelsea’s form, but there is a lot of room for improvement in Enzo Maresca’s decision-making too.

“This win over Benfica is a somewhat a good response to what happened against Brighton but that’s only worthwhile if Chelsea get a result against Liverpool on Saturday.”

Tough test!

Meanwhile, another of Mourinho’s former clubs, Tottenham, were north of the Arctic Circle to play Bodø/Glimt. 25-year-old winger and Bodø born lad Jens Petter Hauge scored in the 53rd and 66th minutes to rock the visiting Londoners after a scoreless first half.

First Hauge was simply not closed down as he found the angle to unleash a shot from inside the Spurs penalty area. Minutes later a Micky van de Ven ‘equaliser’ was rightly chalked off for a shirt pull.

Hauge double the lead in the 66th minute when he slipped one defender and fired with stunning accuracy ino the corner of the net.

That two goal lead was soon halved, when unlikely scorer van de Ven struck his second of the season following his goal in the London Derby at West Ham. He rose and headed a Pedro Porro cross in with aplomb. An own goal from Jostein Gundersen saved a point, not the first time an own goal has saved Spurs late.

Arsenal scored late to secure a 2-0 home win over a well supported Olympiakos side from the Athens port of Piraeus. The Greeks looked competitive at times and while the score was 1-0, Arsenal had to be wary but their win was solid and the clean sheet deserved, with Raya making one outstanding save.

Gabriel Martinelli opened the scoring in just 12 minutes which opened up the pitch as the Greeks searched for an equaliser. He was first to react when a Viktor Gyokeres effort squirmed through Konstantinos Tzolakis and onto the post. Gyokeres had been on the end of a superb defence splitting pass from the very on form Martin Odegaard, who is currently excelling both for club and for country.

Raya’s moment came on 19 minutes with a superb aerial save from a perfectly executed Daniel Podence volley. Saka eased the winner through Tzolakis’ legs in stoppage time.

On occasions the Athenians threatened but Bukayo Saka’s late goal did not flatter Arsenal who will have more uncomfortable evenings in this competition.

Once again, Crystal Palace made the London headlines with an outstanding Conference League win in Lublin, Poland to defeat Dinamo Kiev, 2-0.

Daniel Munoz scored on the half hour to put the South Londoners ahead with a great leap and looping header.

Despite losing the influential Frenchman Jean-Philippe Mateta at half time, Palace seemed to be even more threatening when Eddie Nketiah came on to replace him. Adam Wharton and Yeremy Pino had no trouble at all switching their styles and focus to suit a different type of forward.

Nketiah had scored the wining goal to defeat Liverpool on Saturday. Despite having a first goal chalked off for the narrowest of offsides in Poland, he struck again to put the gloss on a very comfortable victory after superb work by Pino on the left hand touchline.

Palace are now 19 games unbeaten, a record that dates back to Bert Head’s management at Selhurst Park.

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