Palace Make It Three Unbeaten With Prime Performance Against Wolves

While it has been said the last couple of results have been ground out leaving plenty of questions marks about performances, this was a vast improvement even after going behind.

TIME/ DATE/ VENUE

• 15pm
• 18^th October 2022
• Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

RESULT

Crystal Palace 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 4 Luka MILIVOJEVIC, 5 James TOMKINS, 21 Sam JOHNSTONE, 23 Malcolm EBIOWEI, 43 Kofi BALMER, 63 Owen  GOODMAN

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNSED SUBSTITUTES – 13 Matija SARKIC, 14 Yerson MOSQUERA, 19 JONNY, 25 Connor RONAN, 77 Chem CAMPBELL

TEB VERDICT

Back to Selhurst under the lights and there was plenty of hope of a better showing from Palace. After a mixed first half, there was plenty of familiarity with the Eagles finding themselves a goal down to a team with no manager. Was there any panic? Certainly not, as the hosts were level shortly after the kick off and at that point there looked to be only one winner. That was the case as some wonderful play ended with that man Wilfried Zaha firing past the keep to complete the fight back.

There were a few worrying moments late on but Palace deserved the victory following an impressive home performance which was quite an improvement on the games against Leeds and Leicester, even though that sees the Eagles three games without defeat.

Several players played their part in the victory but Eberechi Eze and Odsonne Edouard starred alongside the excellent Wilfried Zaha. A notable mention for Cheick Doucoure who once again showed how good a signing he was in the summer, even though a fifth booking of the season sees him miss the trip to Everton.

BOB’S POINT OF VIEW

Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.

“This was definitely a game of two halves. We huffed and puffed in the first with decent control of possession without ever looking likely to consistently threaten the Wolves defence. The visitors goal was created out of almost nothing with Mitchell losing his man at the far post. It was critical to start the second half on the front foot with greater purpose in possession. An early equaliser after a sublime cross by Olise and converted at the far post by Eze certainly set the pattern for what followed.

Excellent combination play between Edouard and Zaha created space for a clinical finish by Zaha. Although we probably deserved a third goal to settle the result, we were left hanging on for all three points for the final ten minutes. Overall, we deserved the win although Eze and Zaha will deserve the plaudits with Doucoure very solid in the middle of the park, my man of the match goes to Guehi. It was his best performance of the season and confirms that he deserves to be on the plane to Qatar. A class act.”

POST GAME QUOTES

PATRICK VIEIRA – “The front players did really well in possession, but it was a team performance. From the back, with the way we want to play, it was really good today. I was really pleased with that.

We have seven players in our front five who can perform at that level and we have to put this kind of competition to maximise the potential and to allow us to have performances like today.

It was difficult for Wilfried or Michael to find space, so we allowed them to come a little bit more inside so there was a bit more rotation in the second half, a bit more mobility and that allowed us to be dangerous.”

STEVE DAVIS – “We executed the game plan really well in the first half. We stifled them and played our midfield players slightly wider. We scored with probably the best move. Neves’ free-kick was crucial, had that gone in for it would have given us a cushion.

I was disappointed with the first 15 minutes of the second half. That was the worst period of the game for us. We talked a lot a t half-time about how we start because we knew they would probably get a few choice words from their manager. But we weren’t ready for that moment.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE

UPCOMING FIXTURES

22/10/22 Everton (a) – Premier League (3pm)

29/10/22 Southampton (h) – Premier League (3pm)

06/11/22 West Ham United (a) – Premier League (2pm)