Well, it’s been that sort of week at Selhurst Park.
We have never been one for making it easy on ourselves and this week has proved yet again that SE25 always provides entertainment for bad or for good.
The result at Middlesbrough was exactly what we needed, building on the last half hour of our previous game which was the draw with Bournemouth. Palace did that at the Riverside and were good value for the win.
Prior to the game we had the news that one of our late signings Loic Remy was injured, and that we will have to wait up to eight weeks to see him in action in the red and blue, which is a shame.
Then the news after the game has got everyone talking at the moment. Our flying left back Pape Souare was involved in what looked like a horrific car accident on the M4 last weekend. He was air lifted to hospital, and we now know he suffered a broken thigh, jaw and other injuries.
In his pre-match conference (Friday), Alan Pardew has said that Souare now faces up to six months out as he looks to get back to normality. Nobody knows how the crash occurred, but I am sure we will hear some news shortly but all I hope is that there was nothing untoward and it was just one of those terrible accidents.
Let’s move on from the negatives though and look at some of the more positive points of this past week.
One great piece of news is that we are finally up and running in the Premier League. It certainly hasn’t been the best of starts for us, as we struggled in the opening weeks, but I’m hoping we can now push on and get our season really bubbling nicely.
It was a good performance last weekend at the Riverside, we played to our strengths and when we had to dig in, we did to great effect. The new additions look to be settling in nicely, especially Christian Benteke and it was great to see the Belgian international off the mark.
He has already shown us that if we play to his strengths he could really propel us higher up the league but, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we still have to retain that unpredictable element which has made us good in recent years. It is all well and good having a target man and using him, but if we are going to be pumping balls to him left, right and centre teams will cotton on to that.
Although he scored a typical Benteke goal against Boro, I feel we have to be a little smarter and intricate, and above all else, unpredictable. It was Wilfried Zaha that pointed the way in that manner last weekend with a stellar performance.
Many questioned the young lad’s mentality after the speculation from Spurs during the transfer window but we saw when he came on against Bournemouth he can handle the pressure. In the North East, he produced an all action display which was a large part of us picking up the three points.
We all know Zaha’s ability, we see that every week from the stands, but the thing that is currently hindering him at the moment is consistency. Both Ian Wright and Alan Shearer eluded to it on Match Of The Day. If Zaha can produce that kind of quality performance every week, we will have an insanely good player on our hands firstly, and secondly he would take the club higher and hopefully onto news heights, but the magic word with Wilf is consistency.
I am hoping that performance will be a springboard for him and the team. We lost Yannick Bolasie’s unpredictability, but replaced it with poise that Andros Townsend provides. If Zaha wants to realise both his and the clubs potential, he will have to start performing at a 8/10 level every week.
We look forward in anticipation to see what Zaha will show us this week. I am hoping he carries on in the same vein, as we are coming up against a side that are struggling for form at the moment.
Stoke City travel to SE25 off the back of a humbling defeat at home to Spurs. It will not be straightforward, add to that the live aspect of it, we all know that Palace do not tend to do too well under the Sky Sports spotlight.
If we can put together another solid performance, Mark Hughes’ men are certainly there for the taking.
