We have had arguably the toughest start to the season in the league with a disjointed pre-season which saw our squad separated by whole continents.
An opening fixture list which included Manchester City, Liverpool and Premier league dark horses Arsenal. Despite this we are16th with a game in hand and three points away from the top half of the table.
Due to the passing of the Queen, and Premier League organisational incompetency, we have also had a sort of mini pre-season and one would hope that come Chelsea this Saturday we are in a better place than where we started the season.
Our run until the World Cup break should be easier and thus give us an opportunity to shoot up the table. I will have a look at the impending fixtures and make a rough guess at how the future will go.
A Fairly Tricky Start
Our first two games post break are Graham Potter’s Chelsea and a resurgent Leeds team. Calling these two is difficult due to Potter, an old Palace foe, being new to his job and Leeds having a mercurial start to the season with some great wins and some ropey loses. I think a good start would look like 3 or 4 points out of these games with a result from Leeds being a bare minimum.
Points Galore?
Post Leeds we face Leicester, Wolves, Everton and Southampton within a fortnight of each other I think given Leicester’s dire form and Everton and Wolves recent failure and Southampton’s glaring deficiencies 7 points is a minimum out of these 4 games and it wouldn’t be outlandish to say that 3 wins is easily achievable. The only problem is the close proximity of these games and what a few injuries could turn this run into. This block will also see if Patrick Viera can provide answers to questions surrounding clinical finishing and the ability to break down teams that set up more defensively. Hopefully, a potential World Cup call up can incentivise those players into a rich vein of form.
The Last Stretch
Two more very winnable games – Nottingham forest, the final game before the break, being more so than West Ham as David Moyes will probably have sorted out deficiencies but a compact fixture list due to European football could mean we see a fatigued Hammers side. Two points is a minimum from these games.
Due to the condesed fixture list we may see certain players get more of a chance. The likes of Phillips, Richards and Hughes all raring to get more playing time along with some more junior players like Rodney and Wells-Morrison who may see some time on the bench.
In an ideal world I want to see Palace sitting from around the 8th and 10th placed positions with maybe one younger player blooded. However, this may not be a necessity given the volume of time they will spend with Viera during the break.
It may seem like I have set low standards for what I expect as a minimum out of our boys, but I have been unconvinced so far that this young exciting team has added that winning mentality and killer instinct to their repertoire.
