It has been a mixed week for Palace fans, our performance against Spurs was not up to scratch and we came away from White Hart Lane with nothing.
Many fans thought we would go to Spurs and put in a display that we have grown accustomed to over the past year. It just was not up to the standards we expect and rightly or wrongly, we were made to pay.
It was a game that we could have certainly won, as we know the expectation of the club has changed this season. Last season that would have been a bonus game, not this year. We are more than a match for Spurs and if I am being honest, if we were ‘on it’ we could have beaten them.
This next comment might anger Spurs fan if they do indeed come across this article, but I look at them this season and think they are a side that are still suffering from the departure of Gareth Bale. They are nothing special but they do have a few good players in Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Heung Min-Son.
If I had the choice there would not be too many Spurs players I would take at Palace right now. The only exceptions would be the three I have named. As Alan Pardew has said, we are probably on par with the amount of quality we have in our starting eleven compared to side from White Hart Lane.
Following the game in the North London, we had a local derby to contend with against South London neighbours Charlton who made the trip to Selhurst Park in the League Cup.
Watching the match, the gulf in class was evident straight from kick off. Palace monopolised the ball and with Wilfried Zaha in superb form it was just a matter of time the first goal was going to come. There were some terrific performances from players who have been on the fringes. Dwight Gayle took his chance, Joe Ledley was assured in midfield and I thought Adrian Mariappa was solid, albeit he was not remotely tested.
There is plenty to get stuck into, so I better get to it!
First of all I just want to have my say on Alex McCarthy. He is a young keeper with a lot of promise, and I am pleased the club invested to bring him to the club. However, the last couple of performances have made me a little twitchy and nervous. He has the attributes to develop into a top-class goalkeeper, but at the moment it is his parrying ability that is worrying me. It might just be a case of bad luck, and in McCarthy’s case it is deserting him a little. I do like to think keepers work on diverting the ball away from danger.
As we know, the winner for Manchester City came from a shot that McCarthy parried back into the danger area. Against Spurs last week there were shots which he did not deal with correctly. To me it just seems every time he parries a ball away it falls to an onrushing player, and I do feel that luck plays a part. Maybe further down the line we will see McCarthy making saves that will kindly fall to our defenders instead but it is costing us at the moment.
I do not lay all the blame at McCarthy’s door because the defenders also have a responsibility to be sharper and alert when the situation arises. It is not ideal fans calling for him to dropped and it certainly is not the time for that. I urge everyone to please keep the faith with McCarthy.
Ah, I just love Gayle as TEB readers will no doubt be aware of my affection for Gayle. He is a young and talented striker who needs game-time in the Premier League, because he is a lad that will score goals. I am going to bang his drum whenever I get the chance because I think he deserves a bigger role that he is currently getting.
He proved on Wednesday night he can score, regardless if two of them were penalties. I have said this on here time and time again, he is a natural born finisher. With Connor Wickham struggling to find fitness I hope Pardew throws him in against Watford because that could be the sort of game where he could be the difference.
The game on Sunday game will come down to the in-form strikers. Watford have Nigerian international Odion Ighalo and we have Gayle. He might not be the most physical and imposing striker, but I do not think that matters. Given the chance, nine times out of ten he will bury the opportunity.
Well, that is all for this week. We travel to Watford this Sunday, a side we know well from our days in the Championship. It will be a tight game, but if we perform to our maximum I am confident we can engineer a positive result.
Come on you Palace!
