Richards suffers heart-in-mouth moment when ref sends him off against Chelsea

Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards endured a heart-in-mouth moment when referee Michael Salisbury accidentally brandished a red card in his direction.

The United States international fouled Chelsea's Noni Madueke in the centre of the pitch during Wednesday night's Premier League match at Stamford Bridge.

Salisbury awarded Chelsea a free-kick and then produced the red card from his pocket.

Quickly realising that punishment might be a little too harsh, he put it back and waved the yellow at Richards instead, while laughing off his mistake.

The match was evenly-poised at 1-1 at that moment - in the 73rd minute - after Michael Olise had cancelled out an early strike by Mykhailo Mudryk.

But in the end, Chelsea would prevail thanks to an 89th-minute penalty put away by Madueke.

Chelsea were awarded the penalty after Salisbury was instructed by Chris Kavanagh on VAR to check a potential foul by Eberechi Eze on Madueke.

It was a welcome win for Mauricio Pochettino following recent disappointments, including a 2-1 loss at Wolves on Christmas Eve.

It left Chelsea sitting 10th in the Premier League table at the midway mark of the season, some 12 points shy of the Champions League positions.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson wasn't happy about the penalty decision.

'We just have to accept there's two referees every game and every time something happens on the field of play and the referee makes the decision, you still have to wait several minutes just in case somebody in the studio, someone hasn't whispered in his ear that he's seen something different,' he said.

Hodgson added: 'I thought we played very well and that we deserved to get something. We really could have even said that a performance like that should have got us the three points but