Incredibly frustrating at the time, but in the cold light of day I think last night can be filed away under 's*** happens, that's football'.
It's easy to say now that we should have shut up shop and played on the break at 2-0, but if the team had taken that approach and Burnley had found a way back into the game then we'd all be complaining that they should have kept the foot on their throats when we were in the ascendancy.
Plus, consider the emotions. The team have gone through a long rough patch and we saw after the Brighton game how much it meant to them to win again. I'm sure they wanted very much to follow it up not only with another win, but with a good performance for us to enjoy and to get the feel good factor back. Burnley made one chance to score before they actually did, so there was a little warning, but at the same time they were giving the worst defensive performance I've seen for years. We looked like getting more goals. Our new striker was on a hat trick. Add it all up and I can understand why palace stayed on the front foot and weren't more risk averse. It all went wrong, but I don't put that down to negligence or carelessness.
Mistakes were of course made, but another week a tiny bit of luck goes our way and we ride those mistakes out. VAR could have pulled up the would-be handball in the build up to one of their goals, or given a flying f*** about a two handed shove in the back of Kamada in the box. The Lerma own goal was as freakish as it was poor, possibly related to an emotional overreaction to letting the lead slip, but he was at least trying.
I'm not saying we should need to rely on things like the god awful VAR, or that the result is not our own fault, but the game swung on a mad ten minute spell during which a couple of key moments could easily have gone differently.
Overall, and as poorly as they've played for long spells this season, last night was more a bizarre one-off than part of a specific pattern. I don't think it alters where we are overall as a team or club. Results mostly went our way. It remains a squad in transition, but for whom the direction of travel will not become clear until the new manager arrives and defines it. That will not happen until summer anyway, and any changes made now would be an unnecessary risk. I don't think they are any less likely to limp over the line in unspectacular fashion now than they were 48 hours ago.
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