Reasons to be cheerful…or fearful?

Following the final whistle on Monday night, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Crystal Palace had just been relegated, given the collective slumping of players to their knees. Perhaps a call back to an edition of MNF from 1998 when they had been by the same opponents. Yet while the game meant the team remained below the dreaded red line of doom that signals the relegation zone, it was the heart breaking nature of last minute defeat, rather than it being a fatal blow that had so emotionally drained those players.

All defeats to some extent hurt, but this one, this one, was extra painful. To lose in the last minute is a kick in the ribs. To do so when having largely played very well, and be 2-0 up, and in a game against a team you haven’t beaten since 1991 is like a sledgehammer, cricket bat and cannon ball to the ribs all at once. Followed then by a kick in the groin. It wasn’t a game that Palace were expected to get anything from at the start, but at the end it was at the very least one point tossed away. The problem with being at the bottom and fighting for your life as games run out is that while there are certain matches you want to be able to write off, a failure to beat Swansea or Newcastle or West Ham this season, means you can’t afford to be so picky. It’s why this weekend’s game against Chelsea is not the free hit you want it to be.

Of course if you were to return to Palace’s previous match against Manchester United this season, the final whistle that day saw the team breaking records with their seventh consecutive defeat to start a season and their seventh consecutive game without even mustering a goal. At that stage, every decidedly lukewarm take was that Palace were already certainties for the drop and would be down by Christmas. In that context then, to not be adrift, not even to be bottom, to be only one point from safety, within one win of a further five teams and actually be only seven points from the top half is somewhat miraculous. And yet from a position of relative optimism as the end of January approached, the feeling of doom and gloom seems to have returned.


Going six games without a win will do that. Winnable games against West Ham and Newcastle only yielded draws. Tough encounters with Tottenham and Manchester United were last minute concessions of a valuable point. Games at Arsenal and Everton featured collapses in different halves. Nothing exists in a vacuum; Palace’s winless run has come at the same time as a Swansea revival and Brighton and Bournemouth putting together wins which have allowed them some breathing space. The consolation remains that the league is incredibly tight, with between eight and ten teams realistically fighting to avoid three spaces.


The optimism of January was with the promise of new blood on top of the positive results during the festive and New Year period. Last year Palace spent big in the winter window and it was a gamble that paid off. All the players brought in went straight into the first team, all helped make a sizeable contribution. This time around, perhaps even more than last season, squad strengthening was imperative. By and large Palace’s drop off in points has not been as a result of a significant drop off in performances, rather it’s been due to a squad decimated by injuries being stretched to breaking point. An entire first XI has been unavailable, most of them key players. It’s led to a manager, rightly or wrongly, failing to be satisfied that he can make a substitution, where there are no options to change a game or try something different and where tired legs have led to tired minds and the late conceding of goals.


The vast holes in the squad were clear; a lack of legs in central midfield, little pace out wide or the ability to carry the ball forward in the absence of the club talisman and no options up front aside from a woefully out of form target man with confidence seemingly long since shattered. Up to last week the club had only one fit senior goalkeeper. And yet as the transfer window closed on the last day of January, it was hard to argue the club had moved to resolve these issues.


In reviewing Palace’s January window seasoned Palace watcher and Guardian journalist Dominic Fifield wrote: ‘Roy Hodgson had stressed “a successful window would be cover at goalkeeper and centre-forward”. So, while Alexander Sørloth’s arrival provides back-up for Christian Benteke, the manager will be privately alarmed that his only other additions were youngsters who need time to adjust. Palace have lost three senior players to long-term injury since New Year’s Eve, so is their squad stronger now? Their window was rather summed up by the sight of a glum Ibrahim Amadou trudging into the night with his move from Lille unfulfilled.’


Results since that point would suggest the squad was not left stronger. A lack of options on the wing and Wilfried Zaha’s injury has meant centre forward Alexander Sørloth being pressed into action out wide on the left, a position from which he has shown some raw promise but no significant end product. Long term the signs are that the young Danish striker could prove to be an excellent addition, but not in the short term shark tank of a Premier League relegation fight  as an auxiliary left winger. One of the reasons behind the last minute concessions in recent games was the tired limbs, particularly in midfield and yet January loan arrival Erdal Rakip is yet to make an appearance. The young Swedish midfielder arrived on loan from Benfica but is running out of games to make any sort of impact. If he wasn’t judged fit/experienced enough to play at this stage then why was he signed? Polish centre back Jaroslaw Jach, a £2m buy from Zaglebie Lubin has struggled to even make the bench.


The concertinaed look to the bottom half of the Premier League with just 14 points separating 11 teams means there is still all to play for. While West Brom are not hilariously cut adrift in a Derby or Sunderland way, their survival task looks too tough, but for the other sides all will have reasons for both hope or despair. As shown by Swansea’s rise one or two positive results can change perception, but even they lost 4-1 to Brighton two weeks ago.

From a Palace perspective, outside of a dreadful opening 20 minutes at the Emirates Stadium and a 7 minute brain freezing loss of concentration at the beginning of the second half at Goodison Park, team performances have largely remained solid to good. After Saturday’s visit to Stamford Bridge, only one game of the remaining eight is against one of the top six. Following the returns of Martin Kelly and Jeffrey Schlupp on Monday there are more first team players to return, including the team’s difference maker Zaha. And yet, the nagging feeling remains that a failure to adequately strengthen in January has left the team vulnerable and insufficiently equipped to maintain what had been upward progression at the very point when injuries have bit hardest. Reasons to be cheerful… or reasons to be fearful?