Composed, ruthless, and exciting those are just some of the superlatives I would describe Palace’s display last weekend against a West Brom side managed by one of our former managers Tony Pulis.
It was a home performance which in my mind was one of the best we have seen in the past two years. As we know, we have struggled at home both under Neil Warnock and Alan Pardew, but last Saturday was an indication that we could be eradicating those demons after we blew away West Brom with precision and composure.
The only disappointing aspect of the display is that we did not add more goals. Wilfried Zaha terrorised Chris Brunt all afternoon, and if his shooting boots we on in the first half he might have gabbed himself a hat-trick.
Goals from Yannick Bolasie and Yohan Cabaye secured the points. For the DR Congo international it was his first home goal in 46 games, and coming after the funeral of his late father it was a touching moment.
Cabaye fired his second penalty in two weeks, after Zaha bamboozled Brunt yet again but it was a day in which I hope the rest of the league sat up and took notice.
After criticism from the gaffer it looks as though Zaha has turned a corner, and is beginning to show the fans just how pivotal he is to the side.
Zaha was superb last Saturday, everything clicked except his shooting. West Brom just could not handle our mercurial winger. He was in full flow and it was a joy to watch him terrorise Brunt all afternoon.
Rio Ferdinand said on twitter that Zaha was taking ‘liberties’ with the West Brom defence. We all know Zaha has got those kind of performances in him, because we have seen them first hand. The problem is he does not produce them on a regular basis.
After returning to Palace from Manchester United it took him a while to regain his confidence. Under Warnock I felt he was stifled too often and was not allowed to showcase his true attacking flair. Ever since Super Al has arrived, gradually we have seen the old Zaha return and Saturday was the culmination of that transformation.
It has not been easy for Zaha this season, with the arrival of Bakary Sako he has had to adjust to sometimes being on the bench. We certainly need to see the Zaha we saw last Saturday more often, because if we do, we will certainly win more football matches than we lose matches. He is becoming a vital clog of the Pardew machine, let’s hope he continues.
After the start we have made, a lot of people have tipped Palace to potentially navigate a route into Europe. Our former player Ian Wright has been vocal in suggesting Palace have a good enough squad to break the monopoly of the top six, and with other commentators and writers seemingly in favour of putting their neck on the line in predicting Palace could achieve something rather special this year, I want to take a moment to see if we should believe all the hype.
Firstly, I am undecided whether our current crop of players can do what many people think is achievable. There is no doubting this is the best Palace side I have witnessed but Europe could be a year to soon for the club.
One thing we have got in our favour is a manager who knows how to do it. Pardew achieved a fifth place finish with Newcastle United in 2012 after a blistering league campaign. They played in Europe the following year, and if you ask the right people that might have been one of the contributing factors why Newcastle is in such a mess right now.
I certainly do not want to see Palace go into Europe next year and then watch us struggle to maintain our league status. We have worked too hard to throw everything away. On the other hand Europe is a tantalising prospect for any club, and as Palace have never managed it before, it would be a massive achievement.
I look at the playing staff and feel we are one or two players short of staking a claim for Europe. By one or two players short, I do not mean your average players, I mean we need two world class players up or exceeding the level of Cabaye.
If we could add a proven and classy striker who could almost guarantee you 10-15 goals a season, then pushing for Europe could be on the cards.
Now as you know I am a big fan of Dwight Gayle and I believe he could get you upwards of ten goals a season, if given the right service and right system. If we could find someone with a pedigree of producing in Europe and in one of the top leagues in world football, then I would say Europe is certainly achievable.
For the time being we are close, but are still developing and growing and getting into Europe this year could be a step too soon.
