Our weekly feature, The Eagle Speaks, is written by Paul Price who brings us his views on the recent goings on from Selhurst Park. You can get in touch with Paul on Twitter.
This week has been a little odd in many ways due to the back end of the international break, an odd fixture against an international side and then a visit away to the Champions at Old Trafford.
The international break finally fizzled away leaving nothing but a level of despair for some fans due to another injury to Joniesta whilst yet again playing for the Welsh National side. This injury looks as though it will probably see him ruled out for quite a while at a critical time for Palace as although he is not a regular starter, his impact from the bench (as legs are tiring) has been a great asset to have in the locker for Holloway.
Jack Hunt also suffered a broken ankle in training that will see him out for a good few months. On a positive note, the Hunt injury was a clean break with no operation required which should hopefully speed his recovery. To top off the injury list, Joel Ward has received a torn calf muscle which is probably the biggest blow for the first team. It will probably only mean a week or two out but Ward has been one of the stand out players this season for Palace with some great performances. With the growing injuries at Palace our massive transfer window activity came at exactly the right time in order to provide some level of cover for the hard season ahead.
In other news, it appears that the Marange and Garvan sagas may be virtually over now with Holloway reporting that Garvan missed the final 25 man cut due to late transfer activity and because of his attitude and wanting guaranteed first team starts this season. Marange is a slightly stranger case but, this situation was again addressed by Holloway in the week. Holloway’s response on these players is available here.
Moving on, the Oman national team visited Selhurst Park on Tuesday 10th September which was a very strange fixture to be honest. At 5:30 pm I was still at work in Central London with the intention of going home but the intrigue of this encounter became too much for me so I made the trip down to Selhurst Park on my own not really knowing what to expect.
The team sheet handed out in the player’s lounge prior to kick-off only served to cast even more obscurity on this game and the reason for why it was even being played. There was an expectation of this being used as a run out for some of the Academy players and for the new signings to improve fitness and mould them into the team but, some inclusions certainly raised an eye-brow. The odd inclusions (in my opinion) were Garvan, Marange, Dobbie, Wilbraham and Blake given their omission from the Premier League squad. I personally have no idea why they were picked other than giving them further match time to assist with their fitness and to put them in the “shop window” for loan deals perhaps?
The full team that turned out against Oman was:- Alexander, Parr, Garvan, Dobbie, O’Keefe, Wilbraham, Marange, Jerome, Da Silva, Taylor and Blake with Parsons, Appiah, Wynter, Boateng, Gregory and Kaikai as subs.
Oman played quite well during the game for periods but did not really threaten too much generally. Their technical play and speed at times was a pleasure to watch but, Palace did not appear to be under any difficulty throughout any of the game and looked robust and solid with an excellent team performance. This was even more interesting considering the side was very make-shift but gelled together very well. A few players had stand-out performances in the shape of Da Silva who was excellent throughout and deserved a very well taken goal.
Other stand-out performances were from Dobbie (who also managed to score a very nice goal) and Wilbraham who caused problems all evening as an excellent attacking platform/front man target. As well as these positives, it was good to get a glimpse of Cameron Jerome and absolutely fantastic to see Parr returning from injury and making an appearance again on the hallowed turf. The final result on this rather soggy night was 2-0 to Palace which was very well deserved and actually made for a really good and enjoyable evening, even if Selhurst was very eerie with only the Main Stand open.
The big game and a return to proper club football arrived on Saturday. Palace travelled to Old Trafford at a very good time with their team and manager under pressure to kick start their season. All hopes turned to Palace taking the game by the horns, playing without fear and hopefully coming away with some of the spoils from this game. Although Manchester United were the more dominant side as you would expect, all appeared to be going to plan with Palace upsetting them, causing frustration and keeping the 72,000 home fans very quiet (with the latter not being too much of a challenge) for the 3000 Palace fans that made the journey.
In the 43rd minute, KG was adjudged to have bought down Young in the box for a penalty. Having seen this challenge over and over again, at worst it looked clumsy and should have been a free kick. KG did appear to slightly touch Young as he moved into the box but, it appeared to all that Young was already on his way down. KG also appeared to actually get the ball as the tackle continued. With the United player obviously outside the box when the challenge was made and the referee yards away from the incident, it beggars belief that a penalty was awarded with the referee and lino both unclear on what had happened.
To strike the final blow, the subsequent dismissal of KG was a complete joke given the obvious uncertainty and the fact the Delaney also appeared to be in a position to be able to cover a clear goal scoring opportunity.
Not for the first time this season, Palace have been the victims of poor decisions from officials to the greater good of the bigger teams in this league. I thought it at the time but, Holloway was completely right with his comments earlier this season and yet again they have come to fruition for all to see. It’s obviously about time that the FA did something to address this un-level playing field scenario and they also need to address the blatant cheating divers that seem to thrive un-punished in this league for the good of the game.
Palace battled long and hard to try and get back into the game but, it was always going to be a struggle with 10 men against last year’s Champions. Palace actually did well to stay in the game for so long and only conceded a 2nd in the 80th minute. A few comments were made about our passing and ball retention but, the reality was that United pressed us hard when we had the ball and forced the mistakes. This is what cost us in the first instance when it lead to the penalty and red card.
Despite United securing their first home win under Moyes, I do not think that they have anything to be proud about in the slightest. On top of their desire to cheat their way to a win with diving antics from Evra, RVP and of course Young in the early stages, they only managed to score against us from a controversial penalty and a well taken free kick. Let’s not forget that they were playing against a newly promoted side with new faces and with 10 men for over 45 minutes and could not breach our defence in open play.
We could leave Old Trafford with our heads held high and despite the loss, a number of positives could be taken from the game from team perspective but also another great outing from the travelling fans which drew adulation from many United supporters, neutrals and some commentators too.
So, here we are four games down and still 32 to go. Are we being out-played? Convincingly beaten week in and week out? The obvious answer is no.
Looking at the games so far we were very unlucky against Spurs and could have secured a point. The Stoke away loss was down to 5-10 minutes of poor defending and a lack of concentration and again we should have left with a point perhaps given the performance. Sunderland on the other hand were very lucky to leave Selhurst only having lost 3-1 so, a deserved three points was gained. Although we had loads of controversy and upset at the manner of the defeat at United, we went there more with hope rather than full confidence at getting some points. They were definitely the better team on the day (even before the sending off and penalty) so coming away from Old Trafford with no points was not really a shock.
Given the above view-point, we could perhaps have had five points at this early stage of the season instead of the 3 that we have secured to date. Our performances have been very good on the whole under a number of different circumstances and against some of the best teams and players so, all is positive in this aspect.
Home form is going to be the absolute key this season and especially home form against the teams that everybody expects to have around us come Easter. Away form will also be a factor of course but, again we have looked relatively solid away in the main and have either been punished through our own sloppiness, concentration, ball retention or because of poor decisions from the officials. It appears that if we are to survive in this league then we need to keep the ball more and play against more experienced teams and the match officials too.
It will be interesting to see if it does in fact balance itself out across the course of a season as many suggest but, at this stage I think that we are currently 2-0 down but still have everything to play for.
We now move onto Swansea with an expectation of getting something from this game in front of some very noisy and passionate fans at Selhurst Park where I think that our home form will ultimately define our survival and season.
Finally, it was with great sadness that we heard about the passing of Club President Peter Morley. This was a man that was very well thought of and saw the club through a lot of the bad times. We sincerely hope that he managed to enjoy some of the good times before his passing. Our condolences are with his family at this difficult time. #cpfcfamily
