Away wins against the big boys don’t happen very often for the smaller fish of the Premier League. So when these magical days do occur, they are to be treasured. On Sunday, Crystal Palace experienced one of these real treats, in a thrilling 3-2 win against Everton, mirroring their score there just last April.
Palace Turn Back the Clock, and Turn the Corner
Life in general is certainly a pleasant place for Palace right now. Unbeaten in three games, free scoring and playing some exciting, attacking football, the club are once again doing what they do best – proving everybody wrong.
After a very mixed start to the season, things are finally starting to click into gear in SE25. With ex-manager Tony Pulis controversially abandoning the Eagles’ ship on the eve of the new Premier League campaign, many neutrals had written Palace off as certainties for a long hard season of struggle. Most believed the season would end in relegation. But as the great saying goes, ‘it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings’, and my oh my, this beautiful lady is certainly belting out some classics in South London right now.
In fact, she could probably give new manager Neil Warnock a run for his money in the entertainment stakes right now. Known very well for his crass, northern wit, Warnock was at it again yesterday in the post-match press conference. Tongue firmly in cheek, Warnock shared his thoughts on Palace’s hugely skilful, yet somewhat erratic match winner, Yannick Bolasie:
‘The problem with him is that he doesn’t know what he’s going to do next so the defenders have got no chance. He was very positive today, and he covered a lot of ground.’
A back handed compliment for Bolasie, one could surmise, but further evidence if it was required of a ‘Palace renaissance’, and an experienced, yet written-off manager extracting the very best from his battle hardened players.
The expansive, counter attacking style of football so frequently utilised in away games last season is back – and for Palace – it really works. Making the full use of Bolasie’s pace, Jason Puncheon’s nous and Wilfried Zaha’s natural attacking flair should be a requisite for how the team are set up for the rest of this season. But yesterday, the clock was certainly turned back to last year.
For nobody connected with the club – fans, players and management alike would have realistically thought that a repeat of last season’s stunning 3-2 win would have been possible. Not after Everton had easily dispatched German giants Wolfsburg with such ease just last Thursday night. And not after an awful start to the game for Palace, in which Everton lead very early, courtesy of Romelu Lukaku’s fine goal. But Palace are once again made of stern stuff this season, and with Warnock back at the helm – no team will be in for an easy ride against the Eagles this year.
Team spirit and sheer graft seem to go hand in hand with Warnock, who like the “special one” (or whatever he calls himself this week…) Jose Mourinho, places great trust, loyalty and public belief in his players – in exchange for honest endeavour – within an extremely unified camp, with mutual betrayal a very rare commodity. That Warnock has already unified his mostly inherited Palace squad is of huge credit to himself, and should not go unnoticed at all.
There would have been some expected dissent amongst the playing staff at the way in which Pulis left Palace. Certain players – Scott Dann and Joe Ledley are the most obvious examples – joined Palace last January with their main intent to join made very transparent – to play for Pulis. That they now find themselves playing for Warnock is of course the “nature of the beast” – players come and go, managers change in football – but that it was so early into their Palace careers would certainly have been a slightly bitter pill to swallow for the duo.
Pulis’ summer purchases before his departure wouldn’t really have felt the fallout as much – but would still have found it tough going, and to some extents – unsettling.
Nobody epitomised the “never say die” attitude expressed by the Eagles yesterday more than the £7 million record signing man, James McArthur. Eyebrows were certainly raised at the large figure spent by Palace on the Scottish international midfielder, but his lung busting run through to the penalty area at Goodison Park that resulted in Tim Howard’s clumsy foul would have gone some way to answering any critics.
That his ex-Wigan manager Roberto Martinez was in the home dugout is an irony that wouldn’t be lost on McArthur – eager to impress both the old and the new – but given playing time and a proper run alongside club hero Mile Jedinak in the middle of the park, may go on to show that he was a very good piece of business – even at the large transfer fee.
Where to now? Well, a buoyant and confident Leicester City team arrive at Selhurst Park on Saturday for what promises to be an exciting game of football. The Foxes will have their tails well and truly up after that exhilarating 5-3 victory over Manchester United yesterday. But they won’t fancy playing Warnock’s Palace. Quite frankly, nobody will this year.
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