Crystal Palace vs. Arsenal match thread

[PatrickA]

Fine margins always in premier league. Mateta and Saar both missed sitters when we were still in the game. Arsenal gifted ball breaks and undefended shots in the box. And they didn’t miss. Clyde had his worse game. Doesn’t help sitting on bench so long. Cover for Munoz n Mitchell a priority in January surely. We gave the 2nd best team a run for their money for 60 mins. As long as as we beat soton ( w Munoz n eBS and maybe Wharton back) all is on track still. Wondering what has happened to dacoure. He looked way off the pace.

There is no definite date for Wharton to come back, but Glasner has said it will be some weeks away so he will not be playing v Southampton.
It is also evident that Glasner does not see Doucoure as being ready other than a few minutes here and there.
We will be soldiering on with Hughes and Lerma in midfield and hope that their form and fitness holds.

 

[MrRobbo]

WTF do we have 3 players on the halfway line at corners. Yes 1 up to maintain a threat but keeping the goal mouth clear for a corner is suicide. As it was.
Its basic, you crowd the goal mouth even opposing players add to the crowding.
So the game was over at 3-1, 4 and 5 were just us chasing the game.

Even so with 30 something midfielders its always going to be a struggle.
2x Box to Box midfielders in the January window, thanks Parish.

Its a tactic Monaco used in the CL again Arsenal and really threw them of their rhythm, we then did the same midweek and it worked.

 

[Willo]

There is no definite date for Wharton to come back, but Glasner has said it will be some weeks away so he will not be playing v Southampton.
It is also evident that Glasner does not see Doucoure as being ready other than a few minutes here and there.
We will be soldiering on with Hughes and Lerma in midfield and hope that their form and fitness holds.

Doucoure has only featured in 9 PL games
He has started 3 games but in 2 of them he only lasted 45 mins.

 

[Canterbury Palace]

i hate it when big money signings are rubbish. Nketiah is taking the p1.55

He came on when we were 4-1 down. Why is he even part of the conversation about why we lost that game?

It's a tough result and an unfair scoreline but sometimes that happens against the best sides. We were missing Wharton, Eze and Munoz plus, for some reason, Doucoure and Chalobah were left out. We don't have the strength in depth to lose that many key players without it eventually taking a toll.

Next 5 league fixtures: Bournemouth, Southampton, Chelsea, Leicester, West Ham

There's plenty of points to be had there so, like Alan Partridge, we'll bounce back.

 

[steeleye20]

Having attended both of the games against Arsenal, I actually thought that the only period in those games when Arsenal really dominated us was at the start of the second half at The Emirates. We were pinned in our own half and under immense pressure.

Yesterday was a more even contest in terms of shots/chances. Most of what they hit went in. And while yes, our defending was poor, we had decent chances that were spurned or saved.

I recall similar games in the past - 2 against Liverpool for example when we lost 1-6 and 0-7 at home.

I remember the 0-7 home defeat v Liverpool and at the break we could have been 2 up as well.

Thereafter under Roy we dug in to get a point a game.

 

[Painter]

Doucoure has only featured in 9 PL games
He has started 3 games but in 2 of them he only lasted 45 mins.

There is something wrong with Doucoure, he is a shadow of the player 2 seasons ago. Whether he isnt fully fit yet or trying to protect the injury, not sure, but on his recent performances he isnt a first team starter anymore.

 

[PatrickA]

There is something wrong with Doucoure, he is a shadow of the player 2 seasons ago. Whether he isnt fully fit yet or trying to protect the injury, not sure, but on his recent performances he isnt a first team starter anymore.

When asked about Doucoure , Glasner mentioned that when a player has a serious injury it often takes him as long to fully recover as the duration of his absence - in the case of Doucoure this would be a season.
That's a long time.
Other than the cameo v Chelsea earlier in the season, Doucoure has looked way off the pace when he has featured.
It's a conundrum.
His form doesn't warrant selection, but how does he get his sharpness and match fitness if he doesn't play?

In my view we need to add a central midfielder in the window.
There are the fitness concerns over Wharton and Doucoure, and I believe Hughes and Lerma are out of contract at the end of the season.
Why not bed in a new midfielder this season?
Glasner's system places huge demands on the two central midfielders and a new energetic addition ( think prime McArthur, Gallagher) would be most welcome.

 

[doombear]

Does anyone know why he dropped Trevor? I was beginning to warm to him.

Apparently, he felt Trevoh could do with a rest given we have 3 games in 6 days and Richards had performed well in training.

 

[Willo]

When asked about Doucoure , Glasner mentioned that when a player has a serious injury it often takes him as long to fully recover as the duration of his absence - in the case of Doucoure this would be a season.
That's a long time.
Other than the cameo v Chelsea earlier in the season, Doucoure has looked way off the pace when he has featured.
It's a conundrum.
His form doesn't warrant selection, but how does he get his sharpness and match fitness if he doesn't play?

In my view we need to add a central midfielder in the window.
There are the fitness concerns over Wharton and Doucoure, and I believe Hughes and Lerma are out of contract at the end of the season.
Why not bed in a new midfielder this season?
Glasner's system places huge demands on the two central midfielders and a new energetic addition ( think prime McArthur, Gallagher) would be most welcome.

I have long admired Jack Rudoni, whom Coventry signed in the summer from Huddersfield.
Huddersfield signed him from AFC Wimbledon as a goalscoring midfielder.
He certainly puts in the yards and has the ability to win the ball and drive his team forward.
He was actually released by our club at a young age.

 

[doombear]

Its a tactic Monaco used in the CL again Arsenal and really threw them of their rhythm, we then did the same midweek and it worked.

Arsenal clearly expected us to repeat the tactic and made suitable adjustments to their set-up to ensure normal service resumed for them at corners. We were naive.

 

[ex hibitionist]

That is incredibly condescending to criticise fans who quite rightly didn’t enjoy that performance. The defence was woeful today and we gave too many easy opportunities away. To wrap it up into a, well we did ok in some areas, just doesn’t sit well. We shipped 5 goals and you simply cannot sit back and applaud that as a satisfactory performance. We got annihilated and all we can really say is thank goodness there are worse teams to play this Christmas and hopefully we won’t play as poorly again.

I didn't enjoy our defensive performance either - Glasner said it all after the game, lots good but defending terrible. The tactics of pressing them and playing direct to expose the fragility in their defence was the right one, but they are a world class side and the pressure they apply causes defensive mistakes. I will condescend to fans who say the whole team was awful, Glasner got it wrong and it was relegation form because that's cr*p - it's why my post got 10 likes - I gave your post a like by accident btw, sausage fingers!

 

[VinceHilaire]

Arsenal started the game with almost a new team from the Wednesday fixture. They were fresh, hungry and had the stamina to compete.

We basically used the same players. They were tiring pretty rapidly towards the end.

After last weeks incredible result, we were all disappointed with yesterdays performance.

There seems little point dwelling on this game. The players now have a 5 day rest, and with Munoz back in the team, hopefully an improved performance will lift everyone’s spirits.

 

[Adrift]

Its a tactic Monaco used in the CL again Arsenal and really threw them of their rhythm, we then did the same midweek and it worked.

Fair enough, I see how that works, if you have a plan for corners and find 2 players can't be where they are supposed to be then you don't have a plan. Arteta isn't going to get caught with the same trick twice.
Crowding the box is standard practice
The shot from the edge of the box goes in, usually those shots get blocked by a crowd of players another 4 people in there would likely have blocked that. In general movement in the box is limited by the crowding.
I was quite annoyed to see 2 goals from corners when we have 3 players on the halfway line.
The 2nd and 3rd goal killed the game for us and that was down to tactics, yes the manager.

Otherwise I didn't think we were that bad, 4th and 5th goal was just down to chasing the game and I thought our goal was spectacular in the way the ball got passed up the pitch.

 

[ASCPFC]

There really was no possible reason we should have marked Jesus, rather than leaving him totally free was there? I mean we knew he was no danger to us at all after mid week.

 

[Adrift]

There really was no possible reason we should have marked Jesus, rather than leaving him totally free was there? I mean we knew he was no danger to us at all after mid week.

You'd need Pontius Pilot in the team to mark him

 

[Eaglecoops]

I didn't enjoy our defensive performance either - Glasner said it all after the game, lots good but defending terrible. The tactics of pressing them and playing direct to expose the fragility in their defence was the right one, but they are a world class side and the pressure they apply causes defensive mistakes. I will condescend to fans who say the whole team was awful, Glasner got it wrong and it was relegation form because that's cr*p - it's why my post got 10 likes - I gave your post a like by accident btw, sausage fingers!

Maybe they all like letting in 5 goals at home. Strange bunch football fans!

 

[Pete53]

Saturday 1st November Palace 1 Arsenal 5

Yesterday brought back horrible memories of that occasion.

When 1969.

 

[pssguy]

Having attended both of the games against Arsenal, I actually thought that the only period in those games when Arsenal really dominated us was at the start of the second half at The Emirates. We were pinned in our own half and under immense pressure.

Yesterday was a more even contest in terms of shots/chances. Most of what they hit went in. And while yes, our defending was poor, we had decent chances that were spurned or saved.

I recall similar games in the past - 2 against Liverpool for example when we lost 1-6 and 0-7 at home.

The xG was 1.8 to 2.5 which sums up what most people on here say. We deserved to lose but it was a pretty close game. We have actually only had three higher xG's all season: so against Arsenal that was a good attacking effort considering the lack of creative players in the team. When was the last time we had none of Wharton, Eze, Olise or Zaha in the team?

 

[Eaglecoops]

The xG was 1.8 to 2.5 which sums up what most people on here say. We deserved to lose but it was a pretty close game. We have actually only had three higher xG's all season: so against Arsenal that was a good attacking effort considering the lack of creative players in the team. When was the last time we had none of Wharton, Eze, Olise or Zaha in the team?

Having said that, we lost to Everton, West Ham, Brentford and drew with Leicester with both Wharton and Eze starting, so I’m not sure it means we are going to create tons of chances just because we have them in the side. Stats can be very misleading.

 

[doombear]

Having said that, we lost to Everton, West Ham, Brentford and drew with Leicester with both Wharton and Eze starting, so I’m not sure it means we are going to create tons of chances just because we have them in the side. Stats can be very misleading.

Neither they nor most of the team were match fit for Glasball due to lack of Summer rest and little or no pre-season. Fully match fit Eze and Wharton in a fully fit team should beat all those teams when we play them again.