They all look pretty ugly anywayThe crowd will be very ugly if they lose on Saturday.
Looks like Connor Wickham is out for the year, Not looking good
FAILURE TO LAUNCH
When Crystal Palace lost against Manchester City the weekend before last, going down to a goal scored by an unmarked opposition player from a corner, their manager Alan Pardew declared that “the goals we’ve conceded from set plays is not us”. When, at the time, his team had just shipped their ninth out of 21 goals from set plays. The Fiver often gets lost in a reverie thinking about Gylfi Sigurdsson and last week we imagined and even predicted the Icelandic dead-ball specialist would be licking his lips, rubbing his thighs and shouting “Eranu indeed!” at the prospect of filling his boots against Palace at the weekend. And so it came to past, with Gylfi scoring directly from one free-kick, before setting up three of Swansea’s four other goals from set plays that led to some of the most comical breaches of Palace security since Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom. All of this in a match that could only have been improved if “Pards” had done his dance after his side had gone 4-3 up, before conceding two in injury-time to lose 5-4.
Of course, while there is only so much Pardew can do from his technical area to ensure Christian Benteke stays awake, it seems abundantly clear that Crystal Palace players don’t listen to a word he says on the training ground, and on this occasion was at least prepared to point his Big Finger O’Blame at himself as well as others for Saturday’s debacle. “The goals we have conceded don’t reflect well on us and for me personally,” he declared. “The scrutiny on me comes with the territory. I will do what I always do, reflect on this game and try and correct it for the next one.” This whole reflecting on one game and trying to correct it for the next one hasn’t been working too well for Pardew of late, what with his team having lost six on the spin to maintain their record as the worst team in English football’s top four divisions this calendar year. Rumours suggest he may no longer be able rely on this strategy, as former England manager Mr Roy and his successor, keynote speaker Sam Allardyce, have been approached with a view to replacing him.
Assuming he is ushered to the door marked “Do One”, Pardew can at least console himself with the news that he won’t have to deal with the potential absence of Palace’s star player Wilfried Zaha during the Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in Gabon from 14 January to 5 February. Despite having featured twice in friendlies for England, double the number of matches one of his future potential Palace managers was involved with the team, the Abidjan-born winger has nailed his colours to the Ivory Coast mast. “The Ivorian-English attacking midfielder Wilfried Zaha has chosen to play for the Elephants, under the colours of the Ivory Coast, his country of origin,” trumpeted an IFF statement released on Sunday night. The player was promptly accused of “turning his back on England”, by one particular newspaper more readily associated with the “encouragement” they tend to offer immigrants when it comes to returning from whence they came.
Anyone fancy going to see the lights turned on in Croydon?
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that led to some of the most comical breaches of Palace security since Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom.
Anyone fancy going to see the lights turned on in Croydon?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Anyone fancy going to see the lights turned on in Croydon?
Am I being thick? That is fake isn't it?
Hitler also unhappy with current Palace form (copied from palarse FB page)
The best thing is that Palace have actually only played average teams away from home. There last five away games read:
Chelsea
Southampton
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
No points there then.
So what they'll need to do is pick up points against teams at home in the last two months.
So ideally their opponents will have little to play for. Last 5 home games:
Spurs
Watford
Arsenal
Burnley
Hull
Oh.