Eagles Continue Unbeaten Run But Forest Ensure Points Shared

It was a lively afternoon in South London as Forest came to town and after everything that happened in the summer, the Palace fans shared their frustrations ahead of and during an entertaining game at Selhurst.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 24 Borna SOSA, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 44 Walter Benitez, 42 Kaden RODNEY, 59 Rio CARDINES

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 4 MORATO, 12 Douglas LUIZ, 18 Angus GUNN, 30 Willy BOLY

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.

“Before the game against Forest, playing our third game in eight days, there were serious concerns about the strength of our bench compared to the opposition.

The Conference League game against Fredrikstad on Thursday had probably been tougher than expected and had an impact on the final outcome with Forest.

The first half was probably shaded by Palace. In contrast to Thursday, where we played too narrow and into the hands of Fredrikstad’s low block, we had greater width on both flanks. Both Munoz and Mitchell often hugged their respective touch lines and combined with quicker switches of play caused issues for the Forest backline.

With a bit more fortune we could have gone into the break two goals up but only having a one goal advantage proved costly after half time. Sarr converted with a sharp finish to give us the lead. He has become one of our most dangerous and consistent forwards over the past year. The second half became more of a struggle. We found it hard to gain control in possession and with players becoming leggy as the half progressed there were few quality options on the bench to bring energies to our offensive play.

As the game entered its final stages, there was a sense of relief by fans that we finally managed to hold on for the draw with Forest not adding to Hudson-Odoi’s finish at the near post. Both teams were probably happy with the result which fairly reflected the commitment and quality of play by both sets of players. Individually, a lot was asked of Devenny to play in a more creative and wider role. It didn’t play to his strengths and contributed to some phases of offensive play fizzling out in the final third.

Glasner has the conundrum of attempting to solve how our forward play adapts without Eze. Esse who replaced Devenny mid-way through the second half provided some good contributions alongside more energy. Could he feature more prominently in the second leg in Norway this Thursday? However, it’s key additions to the squad that are urgently required. Parish now has seven days to deliver at least three more players to a barely adequate squad to deal with the demand of domestic and potentially more European games. Our back three were as solid as usual when required and Richards shades it as my man of the match.”

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“I think both sides deserved the draw. We took the lead but our legs looked a little fatigued. We’ve had an intense start to the season. In the end the result is fair.

We always know we can count on our supporters. They did it again. It’s always great to play at Selhurst. I’m more or less delighted with our start to the season. This was our fourth competitive game, fourth time unbeaten. There’s a lot of noise around us but a lot of credit to the players to deal with the situation.

I’m very confident there will be signings before the transfer deadline. I know and I can see everybody is working really hard to get the right players in. Everybody knows we have to do it and I’m pretty sure we will do it.”

NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO

“We played good against a very tough team, who are well drilled, well organised. Give no spaces and are aggressive. But we showed character and we played good.

“In the final moments of the game we had two good chances to score. Overall, we created a lot to situations – dominated, control possession and find the gaps. It is always very difficult to defend against Palace and keep the balance. Sarr, Mateta up front, very good players.”

MATCH STATISTICS

TEB VERDICT

There was no doubting that the atmosphere would be good heading into this fixture, and the fans did not disappoint as the Fanatics unfurled an FA Cup celebration tifo, as well as a more controversial banner during the game which featured the Forest owner.

After the events of Thursday evening, this was a positive performance from the Eagles who were in the ascendancy in the first half, with Ismaila Sarr netting after a good short passing move giving the hosts a deserved lead at the break.

The visitors fought back and found an equaliser ten minutes into the second half, and that was how it ended with the points shared amid a number of second half changes from both teams.

It was good to see Romain Esse brought on in the second half replacing Justin Devenny, which allowed him to show some brief glimpses of what he could offer Oliver Glasner’s side now that Ebere Eze has departed.    

Notable individual performances from Maxence Lacroix, Will Hughes, and Daniel Munoz.

UPCOMING FIXTURES