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Palaver is defined as prolonged and idle discussion and is probably going to be apt to the rest of my input to this thread.

This is effectively a Premiership thread, but I title it as Palace as well to give me scope to go on mad, selfish, rant essays to be completely ignored as the rest of you have more intellectual discussion about your teams in this league.

This is here for you to post up anything you have on anything Premiership and hopefully will be a good source of convo as the season gets under way.

Would be pretty impressed if this gets ignored, as that would be a big no you won't to me and fair play to you guys for inflicting that pain, but in my haste I am going to kick things off and say that Palace are reportedly in for David Vaughan as a serious interest and Jerome Thomas.

We have also been reported as putting in a bid for Birmingham's Nathan Redmond of around £2m and Matt Phillips and Tom Ince of Blackpool but the latter two have extortionate price tags of £6m and £8m apparently.

As the Palace team stands I would say Yannick Bolasie is our most exciting prospect along with Jonny Williams, they are the two to look out for and may shine in the Prem imo.

We are in desperate need of a striker as we would be currently starting Aaron Wilbraham if we don't, with Murray injured for the start of the season, then the rest of our team are of good Championship quality, where you would expect a massive overhaul is needed for us to compete in the Prem. However, there has been talk from the chairmen, the main nucleus of the side will remain intact, which may be interesting. They did confirm though that we are likely to be breaking our club transfer record this summer of £2.75m.

Holloway has had the pain of relegation before with Blackpool and I think that experience is going to really help us despite the odds people are giving us to go straight back down, there is a funny feeling in me that we will stay up as we have Holloway at the helm. The same feeling I felt that on Playoff final day we were gonna do it, just because Holloway had been through it twice before. 

Anyone excited? Probably same old for you guys. Nearly 2 months until the start of the fixtures, but I thought I would get this in early. First up is Spurs at home. Nice, easy start. :(.

GL to Palace.

Here to urge the Wenger to do a Mere and spend freely of the money, now he has been given the green light, and FFS buy Rooney......Victor wants to pay me!

rofl, hasn't been called premierSHIP for a long time.

lol is there a difference?

Yes, no such thing as premiership in football anymore ;)

Gl to you/Palace Ant, hoping for a cup tie :)

Cheers Flushy, anything to recreate the atmosphere of last season is fine by me, maybe without Zaha firing on all cylinders for us you will have a chance! :D

Gonna be following the Championship fervently still too, probably as escapism from how we are doing in the prem :)

Dwight Gayle to Phallus for between £4m-£6m depending who you believe. Happy Ant?

Seems a lot to spend on an unproven prem player. Would have thought it would be more like £2.5m with quite a few add ons.
I know you always speak highly of him chompy. Do you think he can cut it in the prem?

Any player yet to play in the Premiership is unproven at that level natch but Dwight would have more chance than most. He's a natural goalscorer who's quick and composed. Think Defoe with a much better attitude.

I'd like to see him do well. Same as Boydy - who also gave us 100% every time - there's no point in him wasting him time at League One level and we've already used some of the £££ to secure Jack Payne, who's a great Poshy signing.

Can't see Palace staying up

£6m for gayle plus 2.5m add ons.

Jesus Christ.

not seen enough of him to judge but for his age and profile that price seems fine

compared to others that is not in general any young english player is overpriced

True.  But I thought everyone learned their lesson after Connor Wickham?

He was loaned out to division below conference last year! He's 23 in a few months.

Ashley barnes is worth £6m then!

23 is young for a striker, so because he was loaned out to a lower league before he can never improve?

he has done more in the game than wickham had albeit a bit older

I think the fee is 4.5m max, 2.75m up front and the quoted 6m+ in the papers is inclusive of wages.

I think it would be a promising buy, without knowing too much about him.

I think Jerome Thomas will be confirmed shortly too.

£8.5m per evening standard with £6m upfront. 6 goals in 20. Probably the correct price given Zaha was like £15m, but then again Hernandez was £7m at a similar age to gayle.

All will be revealed when dagenhams audited accounts are released, if their year end is 30 June we will see it the year after.

Cardiff have just spent 7.5 million on a dane with one good half season in the danish superliga

with the extra tv money the prices are going if premiership sides are buying accordingly

Palace have signed Dwight Gayle for what the Guardian reports is up to £4.5m.

"The fee for Gayle, who joined Peterborough from Dagenham & Redbridge in January for an initial £500,000, is understood to involve an initial down-payment of around £3.25m with a further £1.25m in add-ons."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/03/crystal-palace-dwight-gayle-peterborough

I am excited he might blossom at Palace.

In the meantime we have parted ways with our Brazilian free kick specialist Andre Moritz, as we couldn't promise him first team football, and his contract has recently expired.

We are soon to complete the deal of Jerome Thomas too, as well as already confirming recently, Stephen Dobbie.

Will be interesting so see if we continue to top up anywhere, as I can still think of at least another centre back helping. OFC generally, our side is lacking in comparison to other teams in the prem, but to have any chance of that spirited survival we need AT LEAST one more centre back.

Any topping up anywhere else would be nice too.

Gl in the Prembore, Ant.

At least there's gonna be one manager who's after-match interview on MoTD won't comprise entirely of, "we're taking it one match at a time".

And for those that have never heard Malky in 'full flow'   ...    it's like a high concentrate intravenous dose of Mogadon!

I hope Olly manages to keep 'em up - he'll deserve Manager of the Season with that squad, if he pulls it off.

Fingers crossed.

Who got six goals in 20?

gayle since he went permo.

jerome thomas is a decent player too Ant, turned leeds season around in the short time he was there.

anyone else rumoured to be signing? i saw the link with byram. think it is a good idea to buy these hungry players, much like norwich have done. suprised you are not going for Ince to replace Zaha.

Thought Narwichhhh were going to be in big trouble but made some excellent signings

David Villa goes to Ath Madrid for less than Gayle transfers for

I know its not like for like, age for one thing, but its not a surprise to see the Premiership clubs still going for overseas players when you see the disparities in valuations for proven international class compared to a Championship striker setting up

I agree - think Norwich are going to shift next season.

Any reason a Premiership club didn't go for Villa? Wages maybe?

Seems a snip at the price they paid!

Villa decided to stay in Spain mainly because he really wants to stay in the World cup squad next summer and feared moving to a non champions league side abroad would scarper that

They have as far as i believe only actually paid 2.5 million for him with Barcelona still owning 50% of him.

I suspect there may be a deal going the other way of some sort before the season starts.

Schwarzer to Chelsea.

Erm...ok. More like WTF?

I imagine the John Ruddy transfer couldn't go through then. Schwarzer would be a great no.2 and as such at a top club like Chelsea, could luck out on the chance to have a lot of game time if anything unfortunate was to happen to Cech. At 40 and possibly his last season, I would say an opportunity that couldn't be passed. Think it works well for both parties.

Cheers Luther.

I will need a fair few games to catch a gist of how we are coping before i lay down any prophecies, but there is something about it being Holloway's second bite at the cherry that fills me with quite a bit of assurance that we are going to have a good go at this and the real possibility of staying up.

Palace have Gayle bought, we have Jerome Thomas now officially signed. We are probably nearing the end of a deal for Dan Gosling, who i don't know too much about from Newcastle and aside from the above, all of it is rumour for the rest of our links.

The strongest of which is probably our interest in Peter Odemwingie. £2.5m has apparently been offered, and I think he would be a great addition to us if he comes, and think his bad attitude has been outrageously hyped, and hopefully to our advantage if we get him.

Seems an exciting one. Apparently we are on the verge of signing the Spanish U-20's Captain from Sevilla, Jose Campana, for £2m.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2362872/Crystal-Palace-sign-2m-Jose-Campana-Sevilla.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

http://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/palace-complete-campana-deal-925310.aspx

Looks promising, Ant.

Zola's just been 'given' (another) half a dozen decent players - for 'Pozzo Pounds' - who are as good as (if not better) than Palace have signed with all that Prem Wedge     ....       God knows how our owners do it - but their 'operation' produces gem, after gem.

Just as well you got promoted, or Olly might be a tad annoyed, and rather verbose!

Lol I don't think he cares too much about Watford at the moment, but yeh I doubt he would have been too happy with goings on there. Even with a spectacular squad it is always going to be difficult to get out of the Championship, being top two isn't easy.

I have bad news.

We are apparently on the verge of signing Carlton Cole.

Lowdown on Dwight Gayle Chompy?

Is he an out an out striker? Would he be useful playing as a sole striker, can't imagine he is too good in the air? Is he best placed as a part of a two man strikeforce? Can he play in attacking midfield or on the wing?

Really interested to know how best to use him because we just got hammered today by Crawley 3-0 using most of our first team. I think though a lot of that hinges on the lack of presence of Murray and having to re-adjust because of that. We only know 4-5-1 but I imagine he has had to adapt that as Wilbraham is a little useless, so we are all at sea.

Ian Holloway had an interview post match today and he is extremely worried about the lack of potential signings coming through saying all that could have gone wrong, did, and he's apprehensive about the current state of the team.

Looks like we need a target man fast, and Holloway seems grief stricken that the Carlton Cole deal didn't go through. Our board are being extremely prudent on wages, apparently offering no more that £18k a week, which reportedly put off Gosling/Cole/Odemwingie from signing.

I find it hilarious too that Holloway hasn't seriously gone for any defenders whatsoever. Our form was terrible in the back end of last season, so I do wonder how he thinks Gabidon, Delaney and Ramage are going to cut it as Prem centre backs.

Really fear for Palace this season Ant.  Just haven't strengthened as I thought they would.

We're solid enough across midfield, but we need 2 more defenders and a target man striker, at the very least. Could do with maybe one more winger too. IH is sounding desperate now, and I don't think we will be getting in any sort of top quality before the season starts, might do in January, but I think we will be looking to still be alive by Xmas, with what we currently have. That may involve Wilbraham as well, shoot me now.

Exciting if anything comes of it.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/crystal-palace-join-chase-darren-2124878

Doubt he'll come along for the 18k per week ceiling you mentioned.  He's got to be on 50k/70k or something I reckon?

May be the distant possibility that he comes to play as he was born in Tooting and I think has an affinity to Palace, also the knowledge he would be our cast iron number one striker would probably be something Newcastle, the other team interested, couldn't offer in the same way.

Just wouldn't know with the terrible year he had last year what decision he would be capable of to insure he gets solid gametime.

I am weirdly confident we will have one of Carlton Cole, Odemwingie, Chamakh or Darren Bent before the transfer window closes, despite the fact all are on huge wages. I think we will get one of them to cave as the pressure rises for them as the transfer deadline edges closer.

Holloway has mentioned that at least 4 more signings will be happening, too, including loans.

Please could Bale do one before the start of the season please, cheers.

Heard anything about the interest in Lee Tomlin Ant?

Nothing at all. Rated him when i watched Palace at ures, but he was chubby, embarrassingly so for a champ footballer. Lovely dribbler though.

Selhurst Park is believed to be about to be renamed the 12Bet stadium. Pretty incredible.

We have also done a medical on Maroune Chamakh, but no news of the sealed deal just yet. I think he could really prosper for us, especially with how we have the potential to really bring the best out of a typical target man.

Tommo always looks overweight but it's his body shape as much as anything and he's fitter this season. Think the Premiership would find him out though.

Was it really £6m up front we spent on Gayle btw?

[ ] target man

Good to see Palarse naming their ground after their groupon buy one get two ticket free deals ;)

Can't believe you paid £6M for Gayle, and £1.5M for Dobbie. Still think you can stay up though and even if you don't who cares, you'll be loaded in the championship.

Chamakh believe it or not was a very effective target man in France

Compared to Wilbraham he is like Pele

Think there is a possibility he just hasn't been given a proper chance in a system that might let him shine. It has been a long time since he was last considered a real success though, but I am feeling really good about this one.

Maybe this will be a rehash of the phenomenal Shipperley/Johnson combo that got us promoted last time, with Chamakh and Gayle :)

Chamakh now officially signed. Exciting times at Palace and think we will get the best out of him.

Bent be a good signing

Most likely going to Fulham unfortunately but yeh, if he signed for us it would be awesome.

Are there any neutral pubs near selhurst park?

Why would you need neutral? And I really am not sure to be honest. I know all pubs in Crystal Palace will be serving anyone and everyone on the day, but that is because it is a hefty walk to Selhurst Park from there. About 40 mins. Otherwise assume all pubs in Thornton Heath/South Norwood will be either home or away.

I'm a Spurs supporter.

Nearly certain there are away pubs. I think there is one right near the ground in the Prince George, right next to the chippie too. Here is a link on the supporter's website from last year about it and they say a lot more pubs are fine with the away fans.

http://www.cpfc.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-95288.html

Would imagine the atmosphere on the day in most places is going to be happy enough anyway as we are all gratefully excited by the game. And also excited by the prospect of no Bale :)

Will have to worry about that Soldado though!

OMG Palace are now 1/5 to get Darren Bent. Would be over the moon with this. Would mean we would by probably start Chamakh and Bent with Gayle as well in a sort of front three. Holloway has mentioned we are no longer going to play like we did last season formation wise so I do wonder if it will be more like how it was at Blackpool where I believe he played more of a 4-3-3, rather than having a lone striker.

Still no news on a defender which really baffles me. I think Holloway watched our three games in the playoffs where we didn't concede once in 300 mins agaianst two very good sides and thought, yep, they can cut it in the prem.

Our left back in the absence of an injured Jonathon Parr will be Dean Moxey against Spurs. He wasnt the best for most of last season defensively for us and is hugely susceptible to a half decent winger. Saying that he was in beast mode during the Playoffs. A real interesting call from Holloway defensively, for sure.

why do you think Darren Bent would be a good signing for you?

A proven finisher. I think he was unfairly treated at Villa and think he could prove the difference for us with his goals.

Ure tone Tighty suggests you are much less confident?

I may be wrong, but I see problems with motivation and fitness

Anyway, appears he is off to Fulham on a season's loan. Can see him doing ok there with Berbatov playing off him

There used to be an Ex-Serviceman/CIU type club down the alleyway alongside Selhurst station - cheap beer/food   ...   great if you've got kids in tow/don't want to pay silly prices.

Not much near the ground (one home pub)   ....     otherwise head for South Norwood or Thornton Heath plenty of pubs (and a Weatherspoons beerwharehouse-shopfront).

Don't be concerned about bumping into the 'Croydon Crazies'    ....    they tend to go missing against Spurs/Chelsea/West Ham etc.

Yeh, it is upsetting. Appears that Darren Bent used us to manufacture a move to Fulham. We are being abused by a lot of players now who are using us as a sort of last resort. Carlton Cole, Odemwingie and Bent come to mind. Funnily enough, we are 2/1 favs for Odemwingie and think he would be useful for us up front.

Signed Florian Marange from Bordeaux today. No idea how good he is.

Apprehensive.

Reckon you will take our reserve winger, rumours string stronger.

Not up to championship standard so would be a strange one. He does alrite as an impact sub though. Was good in league 1.

Whose this?

Oh ffs, I think we are starting Wilbraham.

No stop this Ant be supportive, he is good in the air and could link in Gayle very well. Maybe even score a worldie or two.

#CPFC XI to face #THFC: Speroni, Ward, Gabbidon, Delaney, Moxey, Garvan, Dikagcoi, Jedinak, Dobbie, Wilbraham, Gayle.

 THFC XI to face #CPFC: Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Rose; Lennon, Dembele, Chadli, Sigurdsson, Paulinho; Soldado.

1 loss down, 37 more to go.... ;)

Palarse really need some strikers and bolasie and another winger.

Saw banton scored. Could be a talent!

Got to be the worst team ever fielded in the prem

Best keeper though

This is surely the first time ever a team kicked off the Premiership season is actually WORSE player for player than the one they had when playing in the Championship.

To be fair they made a decent fist of it, but any team starting Wilbraham and Dobbie up front isn't going to win games in the Premier League.

This could be a horrific season for Palace.

 

The lack of quality on display for Palace was shocking really. Just can't see them scoring many at all. Would be surprised if they score more than 2 in any Premier League game this year and would set the o/u line on their total goals at 32.5.

Think Derbys team who got about 12 points win that. This is definitely under threat but doubt owners care with a 120m locked up.

That Derby team were dreadful, but when you saw their team on Day 1 at least they had strengthened - Kenny Miller, Claude Davis, Andy Griffin and Rob Earnshaw were all solid Premier League players.  Just feels like Palace just haven't bothered and are taking the money and running.  They have the Zaha money + the Premier League money.  I'm all for financial prudence and not just buying the premier league journeymen on 50k a week who take you down anyway, but signing a only a relatively unproven striker and a young Spanish midfielder after losing your best player just seems odd.

Holloway has said that it has been a nightmare transfer window.

I think our chairmen are not keen on signing anyone up on wages much over £20k a week, so that rules out so many players that are of premiership quality from the get go. So we have seen a lot of our interest in players fall through on that front.

Aside from our transfer worries I think we have done a good bit of business for Chamakh who is very good in the air and will link up with Gayle well once they get a bond going. Our team are fractured at the moment, with Holloway introducing a new formation and 5 of our starting players currently either unfit or a little ill as was Chamakh. If we play Gayle and Chamakh as a top 2, I think we will see our biggest threat as Gayle looked awful coming from deep, and Chamakh was way too deep all game too when he came on, with both doing well further up the pitch.

A lot of Palace fans were very happy with the display against Tottenham, including me. We were very worried that our Championship defence would be decimated by Prem quality and we were not. In fact before the penalty we reduced them to half chances and shots from range. Then after they scored the penno, things opened up as we had to push on and they had more chances but i thought we still did well. I think our defence will hold out much better than most of us thought.

Especially with Floriant Marange, a wing back from Bordeaux likely to start in place of Moxey for the next game. Which brings me to the big fact that we haven't got our preferred starting lineup fully fit!

I think Holloway's first team is Speroni, Ward, Delaney, Gabiddon, Marange, Jedinak, Campana, Bolasie, Thomas, Gayle, Chamakh. Only 6 of them started on Sunday. This cannot be overlooked.

We were good defensively in the first half but had nothing going forward and this was because Wilbraham was up front! He is a little useless at this level, and Dobbie didn't have a good game at all, and him to start with Garvan is very bad as they are both a little too lightweight. When the triple substitution came on at 60 mins we improved a lot and that just shows that when we have our starting team we could do damage.

I think Bolasie will shine if given the chance, so too will Gayle, and Williams.

Overall, I am quite happy to see everyone and his dog dismissing Palace despite us being 5 players short of our ideal line up and us showing a good defensive display. Yes we were pitiful up front, but when you are forced into playing Wilbraham up front on his own, see how quickly any of your sides attacks break down in the prem!

Would say though that we were at home with fantastic support, it was the first game of the season where our performance levels could easily be higher than that of the norm for the rest of the season and it may be that away from home we will be found out for what we are. Especially against teams that aren't transitioning as hard as Tottenham without Bale. I could well be getting lulled into a false sense of hope with how well we played and I am aware of that. But I can just see things clicking for us in a really good way, especially if we have Jedinak suring up the rearguard in just ahead of them.

Just out of curiosity, why is it that none of you commented on a good defensive display in the first half, and up until the penalty? Was it because you were blinded by our ineffectiveness in midfield and up front?

It is going to be interesting to see the bigger teams play us when we are away from home. I think that will be the measure of how well we can cope. All is different when you are at home. I just want to keep thinking that somehow our backline are of good Prem quality, or at least can mimic it well enough to keep us up :)

Would like to remind you guys too that I thought we were awful in the back end of last season when we hadn't won in 8 games and somehow still got the playoffs, I will speak lowly of Palace if they are not giving a good account of themselves, but I am heartened by what I saw Sunday rather than sorrowful and think only with say 8 more games will a better picture be drawn for all of us to judge. Jumping on the Palace are shit bandwagon is a little premature I think and also a very easy way out, but fair play if you are proved right!

on paper, it was the worse team ever fielded and dont think its very close.

Would this team be favourties for a top 3 spot in the championship this year? Betting on them to be relegated seems like printing money.

"Just out of curiosity, why is it that none of you commented on a good defensive display in the first half, and up until the penalty? Was it because you were blinded by our ineffectiveness in midfield and up front?"
 
Don't get me wrong - I think Palace played really well.  But the problem was it felt like a cup tie with a plucky lower league team at home to a big boy.  What's going to happen over 38 games when they have lost 5 in a row and the morale drops.  Morale was high on Saturday.  I remember one Watford season in the Premier when we started full of bounce, losing games 2-3 and even beating Liverpool and Chelsea.  But then we started losing several on the bounce because the team wasn't good enough and before you knew it heads had dropped and 0-4 results against Coventry/Villa were commonplace.  It's the long season of constantly facing quality opposition that grinds you down.

Of course not. A team better than this (theirs last August) were about 6th favourites to get relegated.

Without zaha and Murray, they are useless. Wilbraham hadn't scored in 21 championship games, yet spearheads their attack.

They only have a handful of prem quality players (speroni, Williams, jedinak, Murray).

Funy game this, all people want it for their team to get promoted to the prem, after one game its all doom and gloom, same as last season. Just enjoy the ride, whatever happens happens, playing Spurs sure beat Bourmouth/Yeovil away I can tell thee.

Bournemouth away on a sunny August day v Playing the Spuds at the Croydon Overspill?

I know where I would rather be     .......

Every chance Jason Puncheon has just signed. Quality acquisition if true.

http://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/palace-sign-puncheon-on-loan-1006258.aspx

If he signed for us i would be disappointed, as a prem team this has to be a joke.

Has Oyston moved to Palace?

Lol I think that us four ex Blackpool players for us now? Dobbie, Phillips, Puncheon, Grandin.

30 odd games in the prem last season, 6 goals and is a decent threat. What is not to like? And surely you have to be joking that you wouldnt want him in the Championship? Last time he was there he was outrageous for Millwall, nearly on a goal a game.

lol he had 7 appearances for Millwall.

His career is hardly one to get excited about is it, bouncing about League 1/Championship clubs on load, couldn't get in the QPR team that got relegated. If this is an exciting signing for Palace then it further illustrates what the great David 'Dubai' Shallow was saying about how backing Palace to get relegated is like getting a 57% interest account from the bank.

I agreed with all the things I could relate to on that podcast with him up until that. I think some real naughty assumptions about how our whole squad are close to championship standard and will find it hard to make a good account of ourselves. I think we will and i think it will be a closely run thing. I am assuming Dubai doesn't realise that we had 6, who I deem could be lower prem quality already in our team, and written us off because Murray is unavailable for half the season and Zaha left. Perhaps he fell into the Palace bashing trap.

Saying that I am nowhere near close to be confident enough to put my money where my mouth is but give me say 5 games and ishould have a good idea.

Have to say I agree with Flushy on this one - feels a solid but uninspiring signing. 

Can't believe how excited all your fans are on the Palace forum about this.  50 page thread and hailing him like the arrival of Messi!

I was loving the end of the last season, the prospect of going up and bringing in loads of quality players to have a go at staying up. As fans you have been robbed of this fun. I realise the board are taking the £100m and running, using it to fix the stadium, build for the future etc but its just a bit disappointing as a fan surely?

Yup dung agree he isn't worth hailing over too much but I think it will be a positive move for both parties!

I think Flushy it is unfair on Palace to suggest we are trying to be tight. Spent £12m with the Gayle signing and others. Also had a lot of signings fall through like Gosling and Bent. We are linked with a Nancy striker Mollo, and Yossi Benayoun and a few others.

I think that generally people are underestimating our capabilities for prem footie mainly as everyones opinion is so disgracefully low of us. But again give me 5 games or so and i will give my season long prediction. Annoying though that up until then Bolasie may be out and it would be nice to see his effect.

Off to the Brittania stadium on Saturday in all likelihood, excited about that and thinking about the double chance bet at around evens for Palace and the draw.

Well when the team is weaker than it was in the Championship and i think I'm right in saying that for the second half of the season you were in bottom 6 or even 4, it's not hard to see why people think the team won't cut it in the prem. As i said before with Gayle its hardly exciting snapping someone up who scored 13 goals in the league below on route to his team getting relegated, if anyone else had gone up he would be playing for a Championship side now.

Being linked with/having signings fall through is great. I can link Accrington Stanley with Bale, Ronaldo and Messi its not much use though.

The run at the end of last season was an odd one. I think it correlated heavily with the demise of Murray who was not at the races! But also could have been because that we were not getting punished for our form so we were never really pushed to change it to remain in the playoffs.

With the linked players i guess it is more a point of that we are trying to get guys in rather than rest on our laurels. I think it is a case of getting a good deal rather than be bent over a barrel.

Enjoyed Poyet commenting on the Palace Brighton game on MOTD 2 through gritted teeth just as a random point. Not as a fek you to the Brighton fans but more to him personally.

Confirmed going to the Brittania today, anyone else been. Any good?

From TV, the atmosphere there sounds amazing.

Scrap that no longer going, don't advise late night dodgy pizza. Wrecked.

I think today hinges on if Wilbraham starts or not.

I think he would be best used as a super sub.

YES CHAMAKH!!!!!

Palace all over Stoke

Much shakier start for Palace, at the start of the second half.

1-1- Charlie Adam. I think Moxey gets sucked in too much, leaves Adam at the back post. Nervous here.

This is depressing. Calamity defending while trying to clear a throw. Shawcross easy chance. I think Speroni should have claimed at one point.

This is annoying mainly because we showed what we could do in the first half. And two weak bits of isolated defending let us down. I think these are things that could be ironed out. Rather than fundamental issues down the spine of the team.

I would hope it's just some jitters from our defence to be ironed out with some more experience. We have brought on Williams and Garvan for Campana and Chamakh now and I am not sure about that.

Chamakh going was was a mistake imo. No real outlet up front, with Gayle nowhere near a target man, playing up front by himself.

The draw and an equaliser would make this one fair I think.

Phillips on now. Puncheon off. Stoke deserved another just now so take back my prior statement!

Over. 2-1 loss.

On the whole, I think it was a very promising performance. It was a mistake to sub off Chamakh, as he was a very useful outlet up front and alleviated pressure where he could. However, he will be blamed for our second goal with a bit of a pathetic clearance attempt, but only before Speroni didn't show great command of his box for the second goal.

With the first they scored, gabiddon couldn't clear properly, hoofed it directly up into the air in our box, lost the battle with Crouch, inevitably, and it breaks to their right, our left back Moxey gets caught sucked in trying to provide cover, leaving Adam all alone to place in.

Two pretty isolated incidents of bad defending have cost us. I think we would have weathered the storm of what they were offering at the start of the second half after about 20 mins. Just needed to keep it simple and not make any obvious mistakes but we did.

Would be interesting to see how we would have played more into the second half if we kept the 0-1 lead. If we would have showed continued dominance as we did in the first half, or if it would have been constantly under it.

Our Chamakh goal was all of his own working. Hoof ball up to him and he embarrasses Shawcross by barging him off the ball, steps inside another defender and slots it home comfortably. A real predatory goal, and was very exciting to see. He needed to stay on the pitch the whole match.

Our first half we were closing down, passing hte ball about comfortably and really showing what we were about and it was a joy to watch.

What I haven't previously mentioned too, is that in the first 15 mins, Ward was taken down by Etherington in the box for what should have been a penalty, which we didn't get. That may have changed the face of the game.

Overall, I think Holloway doesn't know our right starting 11, nor have our players fully adapted to the style of play in the prem, but there is clear promise that we will adapt. I think it hinges personally on the eradication of silly mistakes, which aside from the two they scored from we were pretty assured. I think we need to sort our formation out too, and he is restricted in this sense by having Thomas and Bolasie both out so we cannot play with two lively wingers and keep smashing balls in. We are instead going down the middle where we can which is much more alien to us.

I am happy enough with this, I am also happy from a betting perspective because I think Palace are going to be unreasonably long odds in the various betting markets for some future games and we definitely gave a good account of ourselves here.

Before you rate this performance too highly, remember Stoke are one the favourites for relegation.

I am not Camel, for all my pro Palace ways I would say I am a decent enough reader of the game and perhaps the above report comes off of the back of a terrible attacking performance against Tottenham. I think anyone with Wilbs up front in the lone role though won't score, and I am happy Chamakh got a goal under his belt here.

I saw enough from the first half display, away from home, to know we will be a threat to teams, and this is with really unfit players, currently, and two key starters for us in Thomas and Bolasie, out.

Well Campana and Chamakh are most noticeably unfit, which is a shame as they were probably our best two players in the first half.

I think there will be another 5/6 games before we really settle down because there is an outrageous amount of destabilsation happening here, that hopefully will be sorted shortly. But I am very happy to see that we have it in us to be dominant in a game, because I was worried so much by our Tottenham display on that front. I think we will pose a threat, that is for sure.

Also would like to point out Gayle showed flashes of potential too that were impressive. I think it will all come together for us. Home form is crucial.

Ant

the problem is by your own admission you think it will take 5 or 6 games to settle down

Even you must agree you are not going to finish mid table so a start of hardly any points after 6 games will leave you at best second bottom at xmas.

I have seen enough for us to beat Sunderland at home potentially. I think it will take us 5/6 games to get to our semi-optimal, whatever that is, and in the lead up to that we will still be a threat.

I think the match of the day highlights will probably only fuel the detractors of Palace, rather than highlight some great control in the first half.

I think it is going to come together is my main point. But again this may be well too early a shout.

Getting Chamakh/Campana fully fit and getting Bolasie back are so so so huge for us.

I think there is a really decent chance Stoke go down this year. 7/2 looks a great shout at this point.

In the first half they were pretty dire, aside from the worldy save Speroni had to pull off. They basically took advantage of us tiring pretty hardcore in the second half, but this could easily be them turning it on in the second half and us not being able to cope after an ear bashing by Hughes.

It could be a possibility that Hughes gave them a rolicking and got Stoke playing more like themselves in the second and we just couldn't cope. If that is the case, and we are not fitter or stronger, sharpish, then we could be mauled.

Just so hopeful though. And I would be the first to admit when I think there is no hope of survival, we're not there yet, lol.

Found these worth the watch. Photoshops of Palace's Jonny Parr mid celebration after playoff win.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCN-9erGozg

Wow chamakh defending for stoke goal, heads it forwards and then bottles challenge.

Reckon Sunderland will slaughter palarse.

Ant, are you annoyed that you're not making a good go at stayin up in terms of the players you are bringing in?

Gayle is being misused at the moment for us. We are playing him as an attacking midfielder/winger, when he is an out and out striker. He hasn't got much flair but you can just tell he would be a handful as an out and out striker, but we play a 4-5-1 and he won't be displacing Chamakh.

Frustrating to watch, as Palace fans are only judging him for his midfield performances and he has been poor when really he needs to be used in a 4-4-2 formation. But we like to persist with a 4-5-1 and three in the middle with two defensive central midfielders in Dikagcoi and Jedinak. I would like to see if Campana and Jedinak in the middle with Bolasie and Puncheon either side with Gayle and Chamakh would work up front, because I think that would be the correct way to go.

I think Gayle is being hamstrung at the moment and it is ridiculously annoying to watch.

Chamakh I thought should have had a shout from Speroni for the second goal and never should have headered, and for the follow up what he did is normally enough to get the ball away and even if not, how often does it fall to the oppo player like that. I am not annoyed at him for that at all really.

Really interesting stat on Chamakh btw, and one that is disgracefully overlooked on him, is that whenever he starts he has a good record in the prem. 22 starts 9 goals. I think Palace will benefit from a striker that is too good for a team of our stature but has been dreadfully underrated by managers of teams that are better.

A note too has to be said on how Holloway subbed off our three best players from the first half, probably, in Campana, Puncheon and Chamakh, which made no sense to me, but apparently there are fitness issues there. Dikagcoi got our man of the match according to our forums, which will make it harder for him to be dropped for the system I would like.

Steady on Cardiff!

Surprised you haven't mentioned Jedinak Ant. I haven't seen your 2nd game but he looked very tidy in the Spurs game.

You are right. If it isn't broke i don't much mention it. He is a great player for us and had another good game. Dikagcoi, probably pipped him yesterday tho.

Holloway is grizzling that he can't get enough players on loan.   :o :o

"The answer is to scrap the window - it's an absolute joke. Do it how we used to do it. Then us people who've just come up might just have a chance of catching some of these big people. They write their own rules, that's what they do. Now I can only have two loans. Why's that I don't understand."

Just doing his job i guess

Good to see you are letting things go Dung! Ha.

Not this in particular, but I hate with a passion deflection from a manager about immovable things and Holloway recently has been terrible.

Example being rules in place like the loans, (he did have a point last year though about Watford), about refereeing decisions, about the annoyance of getting promoted late and how far behind we are on that front, bemoaning the transfer market for being harsh on him, it existing in the first place. Bemoaning injuries, bemoaning a poor pre season against lower league teams, bemoaning lack of fitness in new players.

He falls short of taking much responsibility for any wrong, he has done in the past but isn't at the moment and I think it is indicative of a highly stressful for time for him now when he is trying to sort our squad out and he is using interviews to just vent and I think he isn't giving a good account of himself by doing this.

I think Holloway needs to play a top 2 to accommodate Gayle and Chamakh in the same team, and I don't think he will pull the trigger, so I think I am going to be constantly frustrated to some level when i am watching. He is going to play Gayle on the wing trying to make him learn the position and I doubt it will work.

Little murmurings that we might be signing Niklas Bendtner too which would be amusing.

Surely if you play 4-4-2 you will just get destroyed, 4-5-1 with 2 DM's makes it hard for teams to score against you

This obviously.

Man U
Spurs
Arsenal
Chelsea

All play with 1 striker. Even city will revert I think. I remember seeing dzeko at right back t times anyway on Sunday.

Against any team who play 5 in the middle you will just get completely outclassed.

If that is the case why did we buy Gayle or look to start him when we have Chamakh? Both are out and out strikers there is only a place for one. Or at the least why play both at the same time. Tis frustrating.

Palarses best chance of winning games IMO will be playing two upfront from the start then reverting to two defensive midfielders.

Think gayle will be converted to a winger, far too weak for the prem to be upfront on his own!

Our [reserve] team lose 2-1 away to Bristol City tonight, some first team players, but none of the others staking a claim to a starting place berth. Really sounded terrible on the radio, didn't make much chances at all.

Garvan scored a worldie though by the sounds of it, recently in the prem he has appeared a little lightweight.

Gayle not even on the bench tonight? Wtf is Holloway doing? This would have been the perfect chance to play him where he HAS to be played. If he's asked to play as a winger, his confidence will be shot by Christmas. Farce that they paid £6.5m for an out-and-out striker and then play him out of position.

Holloway and Pardew having a competition to see who can get their P45 first?

We are going to play him in the Bolasie/Zaha role of last season, or an attacking central midfielder but not as an out and out striker. It is a bit of a disgrace we aren't using him effectively and yes tonight would have been great to use him.

I wouldn't mind seeing how long it is going to take for Holloway to realise he needs to play a 4-4-2, or have Gayle to come on for Chamakh on the 60th minute as a part of the 4-5-1. What is happening currently is a little unacceptable.

And Marky, despite rumours about disharmony at Palace I think that Holloway stays despite results, unless maybe we are really shocking. On the fact that he is a good championship manager, and why get rid of someone who is one of the best in the league we are quite likely to be in next year.

OFC we may want someone to give us a better chance of staying up this year, but I don't think Holloway will be that far adrift to give our chairmen the opportunity.

I'm just messing about Ant, I can't see him going anywhere at all.

On top of that, and I know there must be some success stories, but for relegation material teams that have changed their manager 10+ games into a prem season, how many of them have been a success and could you name a few?

Ah wasn't too sure because the Mirror have claimed we want Holloway out and Pardew in.

Used to happen regularly, (eg promoted Man City start under Mel Machin and bring in Howard Kendall).  but since the divide has increased the last one I can remember was West Brom sacking Megson and bringing in Bryan Robson?  I guess you can count Southampton last season, but they weren't in the relegation places when they binned Atkins.

I think Holloway should be left alone though, given that the board aren't backing him really.

Jokes palarse fans slating dobbie now.

£1.5m and £15k a week well spent. I did warn you he was fat and useless!

He's definitely good in the championship. The step up might be too much but we will have to see. He was not at all impressive against Tottenham.

About to sign Jimmy Kebe

Well there's some width for you. Obviously Holloway has been complaining about lacking the wingers from last year, so not a surprise to see him bringing wide players in

Great stuff if we buy him as we are so short in that dept. atm. I wouldn't hold my breath though Tighy, we have had Bent and Gosling fall after extensive negotiations. We have a knack for fucking these up.

Bendtner keeps on getting thrown about and that would be interesting too.

You should be glad you didn't get Gosling, he's absolutely terrible.

Bringing Bendtner in to partner Gayle in the centre of defence?

Fair play, that helps.


lol.

Do not know whay we bought Gayle and gave you so much money for him to use him like this. I wonder how long it will take for Holloway to use him correctly or is he destined to fail with us, or less likely develop into a great player in a different position.

Apparently we are closing in on William Gallas, who in my head I can only associate with us going down when I think of potential last day imagery, him potentially sitting in the middle of Selhurst park crying that he has ended his career in such a way.

I am more heartened by potential Benayoun signing, and Kebe coming along would add a nice different element to the team. Ultimately, what Holloway does from now until Sunday could mean relegation or survival. Just that one more bright spark to add to what I have already seen from Campana, Chamakh and Puncheon.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2404890/Crystal-Palace-close-signing-William-Gallas.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

You've got to love Ant's optimism.

Completely misguided of course, but I admire him greatly.

Certain you thought my optimism last year was misguided, and look what happened, ha.

Would agree though that talking about players personally, these ones mentioned above, I probably do not know what I am talking about, especially as the guys I have praised have only really played two games for us, and you would probably add that their previous recent output is unworthy of the praise i gave them, but o well i admit I am jumping the gun and could be wrong.

You are right about my optimism about the Palace, I cannot be anything but, even when I make out I am not happy!

Sky Sports News, have just confirmed that Holloway has said he has met with Gallas, but they differ too greatly in wage demands and the deal is unlikely to happen. Holloway did say though that Jimmy Kebe is likely to be a done deal.

i respectfully disagree

Not really sure how you can ?

He is terrible, I know nobody that doesn't think the same, and the fact we tried to get rid of him for a bowl means the club clearly thinks the same.

not sure how we can call soembody who hasnt started 2 league games in a row and has been injured relentessly ''absolutely terrible'

He has had hardly any game time and almost any player who comes back and plays 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there will be a disapointment. So many players take 2 full seasons to start looking good, if we judged them on their first 2 or 3 games I dont think there would be many new signings who would be considered a success.

He actually was given a run of games in pre season and in almost every game he was man of the match or had very good reports.

The fact he was a very promising player under David Moyes and was tipped as a future England star and has played very few games and is considered ''absolutely terrible'' by our fans is very much down to the manager managing the player rather than the players talents.

In the last 3 years he has 16 appearences, Im guessing over 10 of them are as a sub.

Hes very fit, has a good engine, has an eye for goal and is a young English proespect. As a club wed rather sign a second rate French player and not give players like Gosling a chance.

Its a joke.

Hes been here 3 seasons and in 2 of them he has played 1 and 3 games.

To judge a player as very good or very bad you need a lot more evidence.

I personally think he would have been a great signing for Palace and Id be more than happy to see him given a run of games for us, it would be very hard to be worse than Cabaye was for the 2nd half of last season, who would have defintiely deserved the tag of being absolutely terrible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b039gg4t/The_League_Cup_Show_2013_2014_28_08_2013/

Just watched the highlights yesterday and the last goal sums him up well. We break from our own box and he is right there next to the challenge, after 2 30 yard balls, Sammy is in the other 6 yard box and Gosling has managed to cover the whole pitch in the 90th minute after playing his first full competitive game in 3 or 4 years? Shows desire, enthusiasm, passion and I very much doubt Cabaye would have been able to do similar.

He saved us two goals from the line where a lot of players sturggle and seemed to create 2 or 3 chances. Now ofc this is Morecambe and just the highlights but just trying to show a little bit of where I was coming from.

edit for the first goal gosling is again ahread of shola

Could have done with some depth, and unproven players with quality that we could make shine is our only hope of getting a decent player, because of our wage constraints. I was gutted when it went through, it didn't make much sense why it wasn't finalised, and was all dreadfully acrimonious

Sunderland at home tomoz, come season's end you have to hope we got 3 points here.

For some reason I think Altidore will score here.

Why doesn't Dwight Gayle's team mates like to pass the ball to him?  Instead preferring a wild swipe from 30+yds whilst under pressure.  ;carlocitrone;

At last, a Ground in England top flight with a Noisy Home support.
Cracking atmosphere from Palace

Terrific atmosphere

Noticed that in the Spurs game a couple of weeks back, great support.

Cardiff were great last week as well, may just be the novelty factor.

Man Utd Chelsea - sterile.

Always a great support from Palace at home, thanks to the 'Ultras' we have by that corner flag in the Holmsdale stand behind the goal to the left of the camera and on the closest side. They may be a little cringeworthy in and of themselves being a group that look to follow the same mentality as the Italian Ultras, but they do help bring out the noisy side of everyone and it is great to be there.

Of the game I have to thank John O'Shea for getting us out of jail there. I doubt Gayle will be our long term penno taker btw, I am nearly certain giving it to him there was just to settle him down and get him off the mark. Ecstatic by the result and think our right back Ward was fantastic.

It looked a good atmosphere, and an important win obviously

btw, Gayle telegraphed the penalty, stared down the spot it was going for a good ten seconds. Westwood should have saved it, but it was a sign of Gayle's inexperience that keepers will be picking up on.

I would suggest that your cheerleaders are cringeworthy not your support  ;cheerleader;

Yeh, I can't be surprised I guess, if Gayle gets the nod again for the next penno, only because if you take one and score, by right, you are entitled to the next one if you want it, but I would imagine Chamakh would be on them normally. Garvan would take them if on the pitch though as he is our no.1 for pennos.

Agree with Gayle not taking the best penno kick there Tighty, but there could be a chance he takes 10 more obvious pens like that and them to still creep in, and if so, happy days!

I saw we played well against Stoke and Tottenham before and now Sunderland, and I think we are going to compete quite well in this division, hopefully enough to stay up. I think this year at the bottom, much like last year in the prem, all the bottom half of the table could have the possibility of going down.

I think only 8 teams in this league are 'certain' of staying up and then it will be somewhat of a tussle between the rest, with any one of them possibly going down. Ofc some are much less likely, but what I am trying to say is there are 12 teams in this league, that if they were in the bottom 3 by the end of the year, you couldn't be outrageously shocked. Hopefully that will play in Palace's favour.

We have signed Hunt from Huddersfield, a right back, I hope he has come in as back up to Ward and Jimmy Kebe from Reading as yet another forward, but this time with outrageous pace. Holloway has mentioned he wants another 3 or 4 signings come Monday too, which is exciting to hear.

It's 1/3 with SkyBet Nicklas Bendtner is one of them. He would be a great addition.

They are fit though, and our home form has been awesome since their inclusion, so tactically, I think you have to start with them and then give them another 15 mins run out at the break.

Ricardo Vaz Te deal also close apparently.

Probably going to be a busy couple of days.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/335797/EXCLUSIVE-West-Ham-forward-Ricardo-Vaz-Te-closes-in-on-Crystal-Palace-move?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-star-football+%28Daily+Star+%3A%3A+Football+Feed%29

Thought the support from Palace fans was amazing, nice to see.

Impressed by Hull from highlights, underwhelmed by Cardiff. I think it is going to be tight at the bottom.

The pen was so bad, it was good.

It could have only be saved if the keeper didn't dive because it was so close to him it went under the last part him to hit the ground as he dived.

Lucky he hit it so hard.

Paper says you are bidding £5m for ulloa.

That should be enough to buy his left foot. Reckon £12-15m is what he's worth but should wait until jan when he would be starting upfront for arsenal.

£1.75m bid rejected for bridcutt too. £5m Should do it. Insulting bid from the pikeys!

Interesting article on "The myth of the ’20 goals per season’ forward".

http://hitrowz.com/2013/07/14/the-myth-of-the-20-goal-a-season-forward/

Saw this on NSC did make me lol



Crystal Palace today bid 100 million pounds for the AMEX Stadium in Falmer, Brighton.

After days of speculation concerning them signing every available member of their rivals squad, it was confirmed that the stadium bid has gone in.

A statement from the club said the following:

‘In the absence of our ability to tempt away any more members of their squad, we felt that if we put in a bid for the Amex the players would feel more at home..’

‘The problem we have is that no-one wants to come to this neck of the woods, which we can’t understand, there are some perfectly nice Burger Bars.’

The 100 million pound bid may run into problem with funding though.

‘We’ve got the Zaha money; it’s the rest we need to source. We’ve been told that we may get as much as £50,000 for Selhurst Park though, which was a pleasant surprise.’

In other developments, Tony Bloom, the Brighton Chairman, is believed to be in hospital. Reports from the club indicate that he was taken in on Saturday night.

‘It’s nothing to worry about’ said a family member ‘but It was touch and go yesterday, it’s just that when he received the Liam Bridcutt bid it looked like he was going to die laughing….’

It has been revealed that the £5 million bid for Leo Ulloa is a hoax though.

‘We wouldn’t be so stupid to try and sign a striker with any quality at this stage,’ said Ian Holloway ‘Apart from the odd long ball and a very accommodating Sunderland defence, they would get rather cold standing around in mid-December waiting for action’.

:)

Promised 3/4/5 more players today. Should be an interesting sweat.

How is Ulloa looking this year?  I've seen he's scored a few goals.  Has he kicked on again with a pre-season under his belt?

Very sharp

List of potentials.

Nicklas Bendtner, Mark Milligan, Barry Bannan, Moussa Sow, Callum McManaman, Liam Bridcutt, Andy Johnson, Gabriel Tamas and Tom Carroll.

Adrian Mariappa for 1 milly has been thrown out there.

I think I am going to hold myself from updating you every time I hear something and just try to collate news and give you some in one go every now and then, but as I am making this post. Mariappa and Barry Bannan are apparently having medicals as we speak, with a rumour that Bendtner has been spotted at the training ground.

Ladbrokes go 5/1 that Palarse make most TDD signings. Should we be investing Ant?

You don't want Maricrappa on last week's evidence I promise you.

I think we will get 4+ in.

Holloway himself said he wanted 5 in after the Sunderland game, so I would be surprised if we have less than 4. If that is likely to be the most, then get on it.

Jack hunt has signed.

Who?

decent full back

not sure if he is good enough but improved a lot last 12 months

Assumably back up for Joel Ward at right back, who has been great for us so far this season. We had no cover at all at right back before this. Peter Ramage in fact, but that is a poor excuse of a cover in that position.

Think Jack Hunt will be more open to long term improvement than Joel Ward.  Presume it is the Hudderfield player we are talking about.

How have you come to that conclusion? I know nothing of Hunt, but Ward is 23 years old, and has done nothing but vastly improve in this calendar year.

I've seen Hunt about 7/8 times I think, and he has always seen to have developed significantly year on year.  I really like him as a player.  Just the kind of player Watford need at the moment. 

You will know better than me on Joel Ward - I've seen him fewer times but always had the impression he is a solid Champ level pro.  I think Hunt will end up the regular Palace right back by the second half of the year but we shall see.  Can't see Palace paying £2 million for a reserve right back to be honest.

That is why I don't quite understand the purchase. Ward has played out of his skin and above expectation and Holloway didn't expect it, but I would be shocked if Ward gets dropped for anyone, especially as he was man of the match on Saturday.

An interesting one, but we needed two players for this spot regardless for the competition.

:o Barry bannannnnn. My mate goes to about 32-33 villa games a season said a few weeks ago he's the worst player he's seen for them in recent times.

He was pretty good first few games last season at least in fantasy football terms!!

anthonyl you seem to have a lot of love for Palace  ;hide;

I rate bannan but not sure he is physically good enough for the prem. signing villa and Southampton reserves seems a poor start tho

Just reporting what my friend said. Palarse are signing numbers, not quality.

Hunt is decent though, but like ant says ward is a decent right back. Although I can see ward being a good centre back too.

what sort of players are people expecting palace to sign?

Come on Ollie, get that cheque book out!

No fan of Palace either way but calling them Palarse was not funny the first time round

This morning you did not no who Hunt was now he is decent!

Hunt is good, not sure he's ready for the Premier league though.

Funny site popped up, www.whatbaleearns.co.uk

I was joking when I said who. I've seen him live three times.

Maricrappa deal done! That's two...

Lolz @ Hill's 13/8 Arsenal most TDD signings quote.

Bannan and Bendtner deals to be confirmed at some point is what I am hearing. Besides that I am not sure we are doing more than 4, would that be enough as the most bought today?

Liam Bridcutt apparently the fifth signing that would be most likely happening if any, for our fifth onwards. Shouldn't deny a man that wants to move to a bigger club imo :)

chalaoboah or whatever would be better and cheaper than bridcutt.

Mariappa, Bannan and Hunt in the bag today. Bendtner will be dependent on if Arsenal can get in a striker themselves. A foreign CM is apparently on the cards too. Also if Bendtner doesn't come through there is a contingency plan apparently for another guy to fill his boots at the 11th hour.

By my reckoning we would have signed 5 players today and win the title of most signings on deadline day for those on the bet. Is there anyone challenging 4 signings even aside from us?

Dobbie to Hudds on loan..

Ramage to Barnsley too I think. Dobbie will be a great addition to any Champ side.

Awful for us, so do not agree.

Ant, need palace to sign as many as poss, will it be 5?

Prodigal son has returned. We now have Andy Johnson!

4 signed.

One more hurrying from an airport to do a medical, cutting it very fine, foreign CM is all I know. Anyone else signed four today?

The chap from wolves.

AJ deal has fallen through apparently, gutted. Not confirmed yet if we have that chap from Forest.

Adlène Guedioura hangs in the balance

Apparently Cameron Jerome may have signed, a lot of this is hanging in the balance and no one knows much at all. Gutted I heard confirmed reports of AJ back for that to be scuppered.

Andy Johnson turned up too late. Apparently the palarse fans held him up trying to get his autograph ;)

Cameron Jerome is happening I think. They put the statement of intent in before 11pm and have until 1am to confirm it. So should hear about that tonight.

West Brom four in Anchibe goes through

just seen, gutting. So if jerome comes in it should be a push, and not sure what happens in that case.

I am going to assume Ladbrokes are going to just bung in any signings we have dine since the deadline day up until today in with the mist signings bet. In that case we currently have four, which draws with West Brom as we got Cameron Jerome through which I am generally quite excited about. But we have one more that might well have gone through but there is no news currently available and that is for Guediora of Forest.

That gets confirmed we have 5, and win the bet if not we draw with West Brom.

Overall I am happy with the signings of Bannan and Jerome and expect to see Hunt and Mariappa brought in for cover. Not sure we will be starting Jerome but assuming we will. Going to be interesting to see the starting line ups coming up.

http://m.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/article/19741003

So it looks like palace signed 3 and West brom signed 4 going by both websites.

As of 8am this morning, the bet remains "UNSETTLED" by Ladbrokes.

Looks like a goner though.

Any of you looked at the link above. BBC confirms the Jerome signing making four, and the fifth signing looks likely. So we should be onto a winner, at the very least a push

A lot of local Croydon journalists are tweeting we have signed 5 players as they are saying Adlene Guediora and Cameron Jerome are done deals. The bet should be in. :)

Talksport sayingpalace made most signings, ladbrokes still not settled, anyone else?

They won't until there is official word, by 11 I would say.

lads settled as a loser

Over under how often "Palace" & "loser" are seen in the same sentence this Season?

Better add this, in case Ant gets mardy with me.


;)

Do they ever rescind if they call it too early. What happens if we do confirm the signings of Jerome and Guediora later today?

You have signed Jerome no?

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/23939888

Well Ladbrokes don't think so. West Brom signed 4, with Jerome only we signed 4, so it should be a draw.

Would be ridic if the clowns have paid out on west brom.

Jerome is a much better signing than chamakh.

Chamakh has been good for us this season so they will probably be starting together. But I don't know really.

With Thomas and Bolasie back, we would have them Puncheon, Gayle, Grandin, Phillips so 7 altogether for the front three roles. Grandin is probably out of the picture though, and I think Thomas will find himself so as well. So Bolasie, Gayle, Jerome, Chamakh, Puncheon will be our main forwards I think, and I really can't complain with that at all, got to hope they accustom to the bigger games in the prem well and give a good account of themselves. If I was pushed I think I would start Puncheon, Gayle, Chamakh, but that pains me as I love Bolasie, and I would find it odd playing both Jerome and Chamakh. I think Holloway is nearly certainly always starting Puncheon, as he adds something different, and if I was pushed I would say he is starting Gayle too, so maybe Chamakh and Jerome are going to be alternating the front man role?

In the 3 central midfield roles we have Jedinak whose spot is undoubted, then the other more defensive central midfield spot has Dikagcoi's name written all over it, unless the Guediora signing has gone through and he might find himself starting ahead of Dikagcoi. So you would have those two strong anchor like midfielders in there that we have got so accustomed to. Stuart O'Keefe is actually coming on leaps and bounds too and is in contention for a spot here too, so you have four players, potentially here competing for those two spots.

And then to the most contested position on the pitch, the attacking central midfielder spot, that no fewer than Garvan, Dobbie, Williams, Campana and Bannan want. Not sure how Holloway is going to play it. I think he will probably start with Campana and rotate with Bannan, but I have no idea where this leaves Williams, who could prove to be a little gem in the premierleague if given enough exposure but with these two players ahead of him I am not sure he will get much gametime. Garvan and Dobbie may see themselves settling into the development squad for the rest of the season with this new squad now unfortunately.

In defense there is less competition. We have Moxey and Parr vying for the left back role, Moxey being the better attacker but a liability in defense at times and Parr can be seen as the opposite of that but does still offer something going forward. When both are fit I think Parr will get the nod.

With the two centre backs, it is almost laughable to think that Delaney and Gabbidon are going to be starting for us, especially the thought of that in pre season, but in the first three games they have been pretty solid, aside from during Charlie Adam's goal for Stoke where they could have dealt with that spot better. There isn't much pace from Delaney and Gabbidon is slowing, but is still quite rapid at the moment, both are good in the air, and they may just be OK in the prem, it remains to be seen. Of all of our players I worry about our centre backs the most in the prem rather than the rest of the team and hope they can stick it.

At right back we have Ward starting and has already had 3 blinders of games, but we have just bought Hunt to provide cover here, but remains to be seen if he was brought in to start.

In goal we have super Julian Speroni, covered by Alexander.

Quite happy with how things have transpired here. I hope the Guediora and Jerome signings get confirmed shortly, so we have both in the team but also so I can have a real go at Ladbrokes for settling their bet wrongly.

I think we have enough to stay up.

Mariappa is cover for the two centre backs, and completely forgot about Jimmy Kebe too, that would contest for the front three positions, making 8 players available for the front three positions!

Pete O'Rourke ‏@SkySportsPeteO 25m

Adlene Guedioura's proposed move to Crystal Palace to Nottingham Forest has now gone through. #CPFC #NFFC

Still can't see it.  Who do you think has a worse squad over a 38 game season?  Feels like Holloway has gone for volume of signings over quality.  I think he had to go that route to be fair, but the squad still feels below par to me.

I think it will be a decent Championship squad next season.

Definately top half.

I think our form at home will save us, and think there is something good going on here, think you will need to look at our performances over our teamsheet. Impressive against Sunderland, and hopefully more so in the future.

Definitely light at centre back, but what are you going to do?

So 5 signings are confirmed now so Ladbrokes will have to overturn their refusal to pay out on Palace signing the most deadline day players.

My comment was a bit tongue in cheek.I actually quite like Holloway and think he has  enough about him to keep Palace up .

I think this could be a strange season , there are several teams who could be scrapping for survival at the end of the season and it wouldnt surprise me to see as many as 7 teams adrift from the rest of the division come February.

don't worry booder i get you.

And I think it will come together for us, I think the atmosphere is great around here and a lot of the guys we have signed are going to look at Palace as a great opportunity to kick start their careers, and you may see some consistently great performances from them because of it.

That is a really, really bad forward line.


all below par and not good enough


definitely not strong enough

The team is really really weak and squad worse. This genuinely looks like a 10th place team in the championship.

You'd be surprised what we can get out of them Pleno. I am not trying to come across as blissfully defensive, I have seen our output and its been pretty good against the three teams we have already played, and I am hopefuly we are going to give a good account of ourselves.

I'm still bitter at how we lost to them despite having a FAR superior team :D but fair play to them.

God knows what Watford fans think (who had an even superior team to us!)

The palarse team would have come bottom 4 in 2013 games, and Brighton were top by 4 points followed by Watford.

I think the palarse side is now probably a top 10 champ side. Zaha was streets ahead of anyone in that squad (when he wanted to try). There aren't any palarse players id take in the Brighton first team, and we are probably 5-8th best starting 11. Possibly Williams, and the chap from forest, that's it.

I don't doubt it Ant in the short term, but you're going to end up suffering the cumulative impact of the Premer League imo with this squad.  There are going to be some really tough months full of back to back defeats and Holloway will be right up against it to keep the morale up.

How is Campana looking so far? - he was the one signing which I thought looked pretty exciting.
  

i saw one game and you were not good at all. if lennon had been swapped for bale it could have been 5-0 in the first half.

He looks unfit. Clearly comfortable on the ball and a great silky passer, decent free kick on him too, but we haven't seen him anywhere near his best yet and the same applies ont hat front to Chamakh who is pretty unfit.

I think in terms of dealing with the dry spells, he dealt with the one in the championship very well. Always getting enough points to stay in the race for the top 2, only until the death really, and basically never having too much of a sweat going on that we would be out of the playoffs. So fair play that we were crap results wise in 2013 but you could just say we were always doing enough to keep us in the mix and when we had to turn it on we did against two very good sides. I think on both occasions it can be said Holloway got the upper hand on some tactical decisions.

I think Holloway is primed for this campaign, in the same way he was primed for the play offs by winning 2 semi finals in 3 years before winning his third in 4 with us, and then using his annoying experience of losing to WHUFC in the play off final to help beat Watford this time around. Him winning with Blackpool that way too obviously helped and this experience was key I thought. Using that theory, I think what he experienced with Blackpool will serve us hugely in our survival bid.

He ran it very close with them, and I think he will use that to guide us to safety with a bit more ease than it going to the last day anyway. That is my opinion, I think we thrive from being the underdogs anyway, and people constantly assuming we are going to falter despite showing good displays on the pitch is a recipe for us to be underestimated and hopefully that will help us.

It also helps that this season I could actually see all the promoted sides staying up at the expense of WBA, Stoke and Sunderland/Newcastle. Or at the least there being an almighty battle at the bottom. I doubt it will be clear cut.

tbf, Parr is our no.1 left back and he is only coming back to fitness from injury. You didn't see Tottenham get much success down the left hand side as our first choice RB was doing very well.

Good God - that 'end of the transfer window' was like some down off-beat reality show for you lot down at Selhurst, Ant.

I much prefer the Pozzo method     .....       beginning of July, they tell the coach who's che's getting - and Zola pops down to Heathrow in the WFC minibus to collect 'em.

Much less stress!

lol yeh it was a little chaotic and now find ourselves in a position where there a huge amount of players on our team vying for the same spots, all of around the same quality. Will be tough for Holloway to keep everyone happy.

Elliot Grandin makes the cut, wow. I cannot believe Garvan has been dropped here. Also the French Badger we bought only in the summer doesn't make it, Florian Marange.

Stephen Dobbie and Wilbraham the other two notables not making the cut.

1. Neil Alexander
2. Barry Bannan H
3. Yannick Bolasie
4. Marouane Chamakh
5. Damien Delaney
6. Kagisho Dikgacoi
7. Danny Gabbidon H
8. Dwight Gayle  H
9. Elliot Grandin
10. Adlene Guedioura
11. Jack Hunt         H
12. Mile Jedinak
13. Jimmy Kebe
14. Adrian Mariappa H
15. Patrick McCarthy H
16. Dean Moxey H
17. Stuart O'Keefe H
18. Jonathan Parr
19. Kevin Phillips H
20. Lewis Price  H
21. Jason Puncheon H
22. Cameron Jerome H
23. Julian Speroni
24. Jerome Thomas H
25. Joel Ward          H

And to round off the post with a bit of comedy have a look at what Owen Garvan has put up on twitter within the last hour

owen garvan ‏@garvalution 40m

I'll be here longer then he will...trust me

Would be interested to know who he has directed that tweet at! Sassy!

what a terrible squad, has to be the worst ever.

Holloway would be my guess.

Could possibly be directed at the guy that got in ahead of him, Grandin. But you are most probably right. I find it a little unnerving for it to be Holloway though, as that would shed some more light to rumours that Holloway's job isn't completely safe. As in it is on quite shaky ground as the Mirror reported recently.

I think we haven't added any improvement in terms of quality, aside from maybe Bannan, but I don't know much about him, and maybe Jerome being better than Chamakh, but I don't think so.

We have good cover now which is great to see.

In terms of it being the worst squad, that may be correct, but only on paper.

I think we have enough to stay up, and will do some earlier than the final day. I like the fact we are still using the two sitting midfielders, two wide wingers, and one up front. It is what the squad are used to and is why we have been successful.

Happy with some of these guy's steps up to the prem too, especially our main man Jedinak, who I did say last year was of Prem quality which a lot of people had a go at me for!

I think there is a lot to be said about how well a team gel and their attitude to how good their chances are of survival, but I may well be eating my words come the end of the season.

how many of your players do you think would get in swanseas first 11 and swanseas 25 man squad?

Speroni in for Vorm for me.

Jedinak perhaps in the middle, but definitely in the 25. Williams would actually suit Swansea down to a tee with his style and would be in the squad. Bolasie probably gets in their squad as I think he is better, or potentially so, well we will see, than Nathan Dyer. Across the back you keep Swansea's back line. Up front you keep Michu and Bony over what we have.

A lot of that is not the most well advised as i don't really know what their subs are like.

Why Swansea anyway?

And I have explained before why I think we will stay up, I just have to wait and see if our performances have been just as a honeymoon period or if we will have what it takes.

The Palace squad is miles better than some I could name that finished with well under 25 points

Ipsiwch, Derby, my Leicester side of 94-95, Barnsley, Swindon. All never had a hope, and none invested to the extent that Palace have just done. Not going to get players of the next level up to go to Palace anyway, to the extent that Caridff say have got Caulker, Medel etc thats a step above and to do with wages, Malaysian backing etc

I think they will go, but probably on c30-34 points which means they will be nowhere near "terrible" "worst squad ever"

Ty for the input Tighty, I have a very shallow knowledge of the prem, especially on relegation sides.

I think if I am going to add one more point, that may be underrepresented it will be that Chamakh is probably going to be an amazing player for us. The only attack minded player in our team that will have his place cemented in the squad. I say that because Holloway said he would build the team around him but that was before Jerome came in and I would be shocked if that has changed Chamakh being our main striker.

Chamakh was just off a goal every two games in just over 20 starts for Arsenal, a stat that gets overlooked. He looked great for us against Sunderland, with great flicks and helping other players getting involved, and as he showed against Stoke he has a great finish on him. I think we could make him flourish as he will be our number 1 and will be loved here.

He celebrated our third goal on Saturday from the bench by running out of the dugout and looking visibly enthralled. He seems up for it, and is going against the mentality I thought he would have with us of being moody, offbeat and lacking the effort needed.

Still yet to see Bolasie and I have him down as the surprise package in our squad. He is my favourite Palace player and watching him play excited me more than Zaha. We were utterly spoiled as fans seeing those two on either wing.

I rate Speroni pretty highly but I'm afraid it's LOL that he's better than Vorm. Arsenal were rumored to be interested in the Swansea keeper.

Bolaise is not better than Dyer mate.

Jedinak would definitely make their 25, very doubtful he'd be first choice.

Williams has potential for sure, but he's no where near the finished article.

I think Speroni and Jedinak are the only two who'd make the Swansea 25 and neither would be first choice.

Not much between Vorm and Speroni for me be happy with either

Dyer miles clear of Bolaise

Really like Jedinak he has that rare knack of pretty much always trying an attacking pass something i had not noticed in his game a while back. Looks massively improved

Admit Bolasie bias. And also admitted not knowing the Swansea squad as well as I should.

On the Bolasie front though, there may be a case of people not seeing enough of him. He is great. I haven't seen enough of Dyer to make the comparison, but to suggest he is miles better than Bolasie is probably wrong, only my opinion of course and as I have admitted it is biased.

If you guys can't watch the lot, watch between 3.47-4.25.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIS5hFC0mLM

And I would be an eejit not to include this assist that paved the way to the Prem for us, what a cross for the first goal.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3qIrq02SP0

He has great, awkward, bundling flair, has an awesome cross on him and he is just lacking with his finish, but the most exciting player we have in our squad by a mile.

He also videotaped this, what is there not to like?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsJchykrUQQ

Palarse bid for FOUR of our players on Monday.

Incredible.

Surely a compliment that a club of Palace's premierleague stature would find four of your players worthy of making the step up?

Think one of the Watford premiership squads was worse than that as well (The Taylor one about 12 years back).  It does feel like the average standard of permier squad is better (certainly in depth) than it was back a few years ago.  So perhaps the Palace squad might be the worst relative to their divisional rivals we have seen?  Especially when Hull and Cardiff seem to have strengthened well.

We may have one of the most aggressive training sessions in the prem.

In recent weeks, Bolasie, Thomas, Hunt, Ward all have had serious injuries from training with us alone. 4 guys from training inside a month?! WTF is going on in these things!

It is painful as Ward was our standout player in our first three games at right back, and the guy we brought in for competition for that position also goes down with an injury, Hunt, so we are going to be exposed with whoever we put there. I am going to assume it is Mariappa, as I have heard he can play there, maybe DungBeetle can help me out with that one?

It broke my heart when Bolasie went out injured at the start of the season, I think if he hadn't we wouldn't have bought nearly as many forwards as we did, I think Holloway went a little ott.

Holloway has been quoted he is going to be going for it at Old Trafford and thinks a win is a possibility, probably trying his own form of psyching out, and I guess he sees the opportunity with them not having a great start and there being so much change there. Annoying Zaha may figure here too, I really hope there is a way back for him playing for us in January.

What on earth went on with that French full back?  Must be more to it, but according tot the Mail Holloway specifically bought him 2 weeks ago and now has said he has no future at the club because he has no pace.  Makes Holloway sound like an idiot.

He was cover at LB when we didn't really need it as Parr is coming back now. He was bought in a rush and without knowing too much about him obviously because Holloway doesn't rate him at all, and I think can be seen as a panic buy gone wrong. He would have featured in the 25 if we didn't buy Mariappa, but you have to be wondering why we bought him in the first place.

There has been an apology, apparently, and we are looking to offload him on loan as soon as possible, as well as our other players that didn't make the cut, Dobbie and Garvan being the pick of the outcasts.

Holloway really does not help himself at times

Surely they would have been aware of his pace before the signing?

I am not aware of Holloway having a go at his pace specifically Dung?

Amateur!

'It’s as simple as that. I needed some pace in that backline and he hasn’t got it.
'We brought him in during pre-season, I have had a look at his record and thought he would be fine, but in two games he didn’t look quick enough. If he doesn’t like it, I can’t help that."

Must be a great scouting network!

On that basis, that is some shoddy work. I think we would be good in getting rid of him and Garvan to help with morale.

How did he determine his pace from looking at his record?

Press would be having a field day if a Di Canio said something similar

He's dropped the ball here? I don't know what more can be said really. Terrible situation all of Holloway's making. He just needs to make sure this doesn't create any knock on effect to our team morale. But I don't know how it couldn't. Real sloppiness here.

This is alright.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj_owknW9go

Crystal Palace: Speroni, Mariappa, Gabbidon, Delaney, Moxey, Dikgacoi, Jedinak, Campana, Puncheon, Chamakh, Gayle. Subs: Phillips, O'Keefe, Kebe, Alexander, Jerome, Bannan, Guedioura.

This team actually looks OK if you ignore the back 4 which is in no doubt the worst ever in the prem. Thinking about it, the Newcastle back four looks very good compared to this...!

Newcastle back four has 2 clean sheets. The Argentinian national team centre half and one of the best goalkeepers behind them

Yeah, but Argentinas defence isn't the greatest ;)

Unfortunate way to lose. Would say we were going to go down to 10 men regardless of if it was a penalty or not, so with a whole half to go and 10 men, we were huge favourites to lose. However, on what I saw of the second half, perhaps Palace could have held on to the 0-0.

Gayle was close and if that went in, it would have been hilarious.

I think Speroni was at fault for the Rooney free kick, got to his right way too slowly.

Can anyone give me an update on the game if they are watching it please? I know we are 2-0 down but have we been in it at all?

the BBC MOTD Commentator on twitter

"Swansea could have had six. Palace never recovered from a slow start."

di canio sacked.

Di matteo or poyet for the job?

1/3 Di Matteo, 8 Poyet.

Palace performance marred by the absence of Dikagcoi. He and Jedinak would have been far more alert in the system that they know well, not to allow Michu the space he got for his first goal. We had Guediora in there instead who I don't rate from what I have seen. Seems flimsy and unreliable.

We're missing the style of play that we had last year and that is hitting either wing with two skillful players on either side and having someone lethal in the middle.

As it stands it looks like we are playing two centre forwards with one slightly deeper, and only a right winger with the left wing completely bare.

I think Holloway has noticed the lack of cohesion and is going to love the fact that Bolasie should be back in the side shortly as that is a genuine pacy attacking flair on one wing, annoying though that by being out he may be some way off of fitness, but will have to be patient here.

We were missing a centre back for the whole second half too when Delaney went off injured and Jedinak had to play there.

So I think this game is a little bit of a match we will just have to forget about and hopefully something will click in the next coming games.

Two attacking wingers and one up front with two defensive midfielders is what I think the policy should be. The old 4-2-3-1 that we used, in a lot of cases last season, to devastating effect.

Absurd to sack Di Canio this early.  He's just bought an entire squad and needed time to work.  What if new bloke wants a different 1st XI.

If a player doesn't like being critisized for the bad start then the chairman should remind him that he is a highly paid employee and works for the manager.

Spineless.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2429468/Paolo-Di-Canio-sacked-Sunderland-ANOTHER-bust-players.html

pretty much no choice...total looney

Only in football are the employees allowed to shirk all responsibility for complete failure to carry out their jobs correctly.  "Just give me my 50k a week, and if I play badly then it's the manager's fault."

The board knew what they were getting with Di Canio.  If the tattooed pansies don't like being held to account by their boss, then stick them in the reserves and fine them 2 weeks wages.  And if they keep grizzling them sack them for gross misconduct with no payoff.

If the Sunderland board didn't want discipline then they should have hired a manager who likes to be all pally with the players like Steve McLaren.

calling them out in public is a no no..simples...

questioning O'sheas commitment and passion for the game in public is a no no..

You cannot do old school on Prem players these days, they have to be treated a certain way. Discipline is fine but ridiculing them and not allowing them to speak to so called "normal" staff is absurd.

The boards fault, they should have hired him for the season and got rid when he kept them up.

To be fair - he smashed into them in a private club meeting and they couldn't take it. 

I agree the O'Shea thing was poor though.

"You cannot do old school on Prem players these days, they have to be treated a certain way"

You can treat them as you want if you don't mind losing millions.

Man City could have put Tevez in the reserves till the end of his contract and fined him 2 weeks wages every time he went off to Argentina.  But they didn't want to miss out on selling him to Juventus for £10 million or whatever it was.

I think the big problem is one of respect because the players (generally) earn far more than the boss.

Unconfirmed rumour that Hughton has been sacked on twitter/Norwich forum and will be announced tomorrow.  But can't see it myself.  But then I couldn't see Di Canio getting canned either.

I just don't think Di Canio appears to be a complete manager more maybe of a motivator that would be great as a first team coach as he would cause one two many fractions in the team if he was manager. The way he rose to become a premierleague manager is a little laughable too.

One decent spell at Swindon shouldn't warrant you premierleague management!

Finally have the jitters about Palace now. That performance against Swansea was woeful. I hope it is a one off and I hope we get much more better luck with suspensions and injuries as we had 4 or 5 out of the first team+ subs likely to get a game, out.

Need to gel. Need Bolasie back. Need to play one up front, not two. Probably need to start Chamakh over Gayle up top and alternate. We started Jermome on the wing on Sunday and that isn't the answer either. Would be very happy with Bolasie and Puncheon on either wing, think that would be a potent threat, oddly probably less of one we had last year in the championship but it will do!

Bannan apparently did well despite the team failing around him which is a good sign. Probably means he gets to start the next game ahead of Campana.

My ideal starting line up, with all fit, would be:

                      Speroni
Ward Delaney Gabiddon Parr
                 KG Jedinak
Puncheon    Bannan    Bolasie
                 Chamakh/Gayle

Aside from a great first half spell against Stoke away where we were potent and a decent attacking unit we have not clicked going forward and this is worrying especially after 5 games. Going to be interesting as to what unfolds for us in the next five games.

Meh - quite often I'd rather a fresh face who has done his coaching qualifications than an old long in the tooth manager who has been on the roundabout for donkeys years like Bruce, Hughes, Holloway or Allardyce.  They are just the latest incarnations of Peter Reid, Graeme Souness, Ian Dowie and Bryan Robson.  Thankfully chairmen have finally learned that the latter 4 are dreadful and they don't get work any more.

On reflection - probably a bit unfair to lump Holloway and Allardyce in with that motley crew.

I'm pretty sure Hughes and Bruce will end up on the scrapheap in a couple of years though.  Hughes in last chance saloon, and Bruce can probably mess one more up royally since he has done well with Hull.

I just think there were more managers that are successful in the leagues below the premiership and have been for longer than di canio that haven't been given a chance at the big time but di canio got in because of his outrageous personality which actually proved to be his downfall.

Optimistic about Saturday Ant ?

Not with their defensive record and our attacking problems, no, lol.

Would say though that Southampton would not want to see Bolasie starting, nor Ward or KG.

We've looked okay. It's 0-0 atm.

They had a lobbed header cleared off the line by Ward with Speroni not doing very well, they also had a decent lay up to Lambert that fired over.

Then the talking point and Palace's best chance, Chamakh is clean through, gets to the ball in line with his run perfectly to strike the ball past the keeper as he approaches, no real awkwardness here, but inexplicably decides to try and round the keeper, does so but leaves his trailing leg in for a dive over the palms of the keeper, expertly spotted by the ref. He gets yellow carded for simulation. Really annoying not to see the shot in from him there as it was a golden opportunity.

We also had another decent chance but by the time Bannan got to strike it he was closed down, Kebe who teed it up should have took the shot himself. Kebe should have laid off Gayle with a ball in front of him to set him through but annoyingly puts it just behind him/at him.

We have looked decent on the break, Kebe looks terrible with his final ball but very lively with his pace which is causing problems. Bannan has generally been wasteful and wouldn't be surprised to see Campana coming on to replace him and Jerome in to replace Chamkh as his head may be gone a bit. The other possible sub I see is Thomas on for Gayle.

remind me never to post on blonde again

Jedinak a complete joke for their first, tried to run it out and got dispossessed, and then a melee and Osvaldo dealt with it. Then a silly free kick and a Lambert worldie. Two sucker punches, feels a lot like what happened against Stoke away! They scored two at the start of the second half very quickly.

I think bar these really silly mistakes we are an okay unit. But I am not sure we are going to be doing a lot of barring of those, which is upsetting.

All of this puts the onus on Chamakh's dive in the first half.

Of our first 6 games i can look at a lot of excuses that make me think we haven't had the opportunity to fully show what we are capable of.

Against Tottenham, a dodgy handball concedes a penno and they win 0-1
Against Stoke, we go 0-1 up and looking great, get blitzed by two goals from two lapses, and heads are then down and we can't seem to get back into it
Sunderland we actually play quite well throughout and get lucky with a sending off and penalty, and we go on to win.
Man Utd away we looked resolute up until two terrible mistakes to the lead up to Dikagcoi's sending off, him slide tackling when he could have stayed up and Jedinak giving the ball away.
Swansea, we hadn't Dikagcoi, nor Ward and they are crucial, got hit with a sucker punch very early where we couldn't recover.
Today, we weathered an early storm well, but by the end of the first half to say that it ended evenly would be fair, and then we get done by a double blitz again.

I don't think it is through a complete gulf in class with us not being able to get a run of results going, I think it is more to do with nerves and decision making, not our ability. As when we have been on the up we have looked good. Even under it we have looked assured and then boom out of nowhere a mistake cripples us and we are fighting on the back foot.

One thing that does worry me is our ability to come back from losing positions, or a the very least show some great fight and character. What has happened instead is we look dead and every bit the relegated side that we are tipped to be, which is worrying. When we are drawing or winning, we look good, and back against the walls we look shocking.

I have to hope things click.

Bolasie is coming back next week I have heard and wouldn't be surprised to see him thrust into action immediately, especially in a no pressure game away to Liverpool we are expected to lose, he can look to really express himself with his great flair.

I thought Kebe was utter crap today btw, wasn't too impressed with Bannan either but I can see he has quality and will come good, the same with Gayle who I like more and more and Chamakh looks lively enough too. Gut wrenching to see that dive today but o well.

On the whole, I think the nay sayers are going to be thinking we are every bit of the no hopers when they see the highlights tonight, but I still think there is a decent possibility that we are a team that just needs a little bit more time to settle, before maybe launching a bid for 15th+, being the mad dreamers we are.

Tbh Palace have surprised me, never thought you would have 3pts this early in the season.

That is a good point.

I would have said, pre season, the results, how they have panned out already was going to be our points tally. Couldn't see past a home win against Sunderland, but thought maybe we would get something away to Stoke.

Last time we were up we were in much worse shape that we are now in the same amount of games, and it was by 8 that our season kicked off at home to Fulham. We have Fulham at home after 8 games this season too and hope we get the same result we did then on that day.

I'm absolutely failing to understand why Chamakh doesn't want to shoot when clear through.  Must be a confidence issue.

It was heartbreaking watching that live and when it was capped off with a booking for diving.

Deffo a confidence thing imo.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2438561/Marouane-Chamakh-Dean-Moxey-separated-bust-Crystal-Palace-dressing-room--Exclusive.html

Oopsie

Handbags.

Expect Chamakh to actually turn it on from now on.

Yannick Bolasie back again for tomorrow! #fek

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24285417?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Wow, a long old apprenticeship for the lad, Ant.

On his 9th club @ 24 years old      .....       and none of them have taught him how to shoot.

:) Doesn't need to learn how to shoot to be integral for us this season. His crossing and flair alone could be the difference to us staying up, but we would need to revert back to having two wingers rather than two inside forwards as we are lacking width.

If we play him as an inside forward we are going to negate his ability. I think if Puncheon and Bolasie hug both touchlines on either side we could be effective.


I very oddly have a good feeling about today.

Got the Palace @ 11/1 in my weekly 'mad/bad stick it up the bookies' multi-bettage.

Reason: I can't stand that ********** Brendan Rogers.

Come on you Eagles, make me Glad All Over.

Gl Ant.

A lot of love for this.

Great first half, no real mistakes and unbelievable we are 3-0 up. Wait, no, I have misread that.

First goal Jedinak doesn't track Suarez in the box, wonder what happens when you that, Speroni I thought was terrible for the second, doesn't close the angle down enough, and Moxey is very lazy at conceding the penno for the third.

We had two good chances to score and we could have gone 0-1 and that would have changed the shape of the game. Kebe embarrassed hiself when one on one with the keeper, falling over himself.

We have no confidence in the finish, and I would love for this to at least emulate the Everton Newcastle game by us claiming 2 goals and getting the monkey off of our back and get some neat finishing in!

Yannick Bolasie came on but looks way way way off match fitness, it looked as if he couldn't be bothered, and for a man that relies on his exuberance that really isn't good! But hopefully that will come with time and more games.

Second half Gayle got a nice header in from a free kick, but it is unfortunate that we didn't scoer in open play because we really do look awful going forward in that front and when a chance does fall to one of our men, atm, only Gayle looks dangerous, missing with intent, rather than missing with a powederpuff lol.

A lot to improve at the back and up front and we are in disarray.

Rant.

I think Holloway has to keep things simple and play the same way that made us a success last season, have two out and out wingers and at least one out and out striker. We only had one last year but I could see room for two with Chamakh and Gayle. Would mean that we couldn't have two sitting midfielders, but what good is that currently doing us?

Jedinak has been a shadow of his former self and it means we are leakier than ever, and Holloway hasn't settled at all on an attacking formation, so we are in disarray everywhere. He will need to keep it simple. And from what I have seen I think he will need to start Bolasie and Puncheon as out and out wingers, have Chamakh and Gayle as a conventional front two, have Campana and KG in the middle and then the best available back four.

I know it sounds like blasphemy to play with a conventional 4-4-2, but I think it is definitely worth a shot, and is so much better than the 4-3-3 we are playing. Holloway needs to adapt quickly with this as losing will become a habit, and our players will accept the negative hype surrounding them and not provide any spark.

Dwight Gayle and Maroaune Chamakh could provide that spark playing as a front two, and being big and little as they are they could work well. I don't like Jerome, nor do I like Kebe, both seem technically below par despite their good physical attributes.

Cannot wait for Moxey to get dropped as he has given away two penalties now, has looked quite poor defensively despite being pretty good attacking and be replaced by Jonathon Parr. I think Ward at right back has been a revelation. I also think Gabiddon has adjusted well to the step up to the prem, much more than Delaney who was a little all over the place to Daniel Sturridge on Saturday but I shouldn't be too harsh there. And the jury is still out on Mariappa.

On Speroni, I have taken a bit of a U-Turn. I think he will cost us quite a few goals this season and it has already been the case thus far. The second one from Sturridge, he was hugging the front post. He hasn't claimed on a few occasions this season he should have, and there have been a couple of goals, a better keeper would have done better.

His strength comes in one on ones and his point blank reactions, this is why he is always highly rated with the Palace faithful as he pops up in huge games and pulls off high class perforances, but I think they are papering over the cracks of a keeper that isn't the best shot stopper, and annoyingly too, I think he suffers from nerves from being back in the Prem. He just doesn't look quite right. Another incident to support that point was a silly parry to an easy looking free kick from Lambert when the catch seemed easier.

I think overall I am just hoping Holloway changes things up if they are not working tactically with his formation rather than persist with a failing concept. We have looked inept going forward but he persists with playing three up front. I just hope that he reverts to a 4-5-1 (4-2-3-1) or the 4-4-2 quickly, just to give us a fighting chance of staying up and to show he is capable of the changes needed to give us the best shot.

4 points adrift now at the bottom and we have a huge game against Fulham at home to deal with, I very much hope that Chaakh and Gayle play as a front two and get something very nice going!

Yeah - that Fulham game looks a biggie and very winnable.  They deserved to lose at home to Stoke imo.

Well done poyet at least palarse will come rock bottom now :)

Think that's a good appointment for Sunderland if they are thinking longer term. Hope they give him a decent crack of the whip and don't just boot him out if they do go down.  That squad is definitely one of the 3 weakest in the division I think.

Don't know why you are backing him Anthonyl, he said he had took your club to the ceiling and treated you like what you left in our changing rooms. I think he could well be overrated, and would like for him to get Sunderland relegated obviously, as Palace need some help for a replacement 3 to go down!

He is an idiot but he still took us from bottom 4 in league one, to the best team on points from jan to may last season in the champ.

He has set us up well for the future. Feelings will improve if they stay up at the expense of palarse.

He's clearly a nob, but happens to be a nob that i like, gl to the fella

Huge game tonight and it will be the first one this season I will be watching live in the stands.

All I want to hear pre match is that Puncheon and Bolasie are starting, and what I hope to see is the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 with two wide wingers.

Play that and I think we may have a chance.

If we play the 4-3-3, I think it is going to be more of the same attacking dross. I think that was what Blackpool used to play under Holloway and that seemed to work for them in an attacking sense but not at all for us. We know only two ways at Palace, the 4-4-2 and the 4-2-3-1, lets not over complicate things.

The side I want to see tonight:

              Speroni
Ward Gabbidon Delaney Moxey
          O'Keefe Dikagcoi (Campana if Dik is injured)
Puncheon  Bannan   Bolasie
             Chamakh

I wouldn't mind a 4-4-2 either with Gayle partnering Chamakh, with Dikagcoi being dropped.

I want to see Jedinak dropped as if he wasn't our captain or our player of the year last season I think his recent form would warrantit, has been calamitous recently. Of O'Keefe and KG, both have been steady and both are hard into a tackle and would provide the defensive cover.

Bannan over Campana in the hole for me as he has been performing for Scotland of late, thinking in particular the game against Macedonia and think we could be onto a treat if we get him going.

Chamakh over Gayle up front, just because of the strength attributes and how Chamakh can hold up the ball and link play better. However, easiest sub in the world later in the match, with Gayle's capability for being dangerous off of the last man.

Of Cameron Jerome, I just don't like the guy, he isn't very effective. And the same goes to Kebe, terrible signings for me. I hope I am proved dramatically wrong there though. Of Jerome Thomas, I haven't made my mind up, but I am not holding my breath. I am annoyed with the amount of wingers we have at the club tbh, not sure what Holloway was thinking, it can't be good for team morale signing players that will prove only to get 30 mins here or there, if any gametime at all.

Also I don't think we needed Jerome in, as we already had two strikers, for the sort of 1 central attacker role we have.

Think Guediora is lightweight too from what I have seen, a little flimsy and unreliable, but again redic early judgements on all the new guys.

Joel Ward has been the shining light and I think if he carries on at the rate he is going he will be alerted to Roy Hodgson as an outside chance of filling his right back position. I use OUTSIDE CHANCE, before any of you think I am deliberately trying to provoke you, as in his name may be mentioned when looking at candidates. The OPTA stats say Ward has made the most tackles in the Prem which is mightily impressive, and generally when players are up against him, he stands firm and makes it very tough.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11096/8975455/unsung-heroes

Moxey is a liability defensively and I would like to see Parr back but not sure he is fit yet.

Generally, I am loving the chance to watch all of the players live, so i can see them off the ball and get a much better feel as to what we are getting wrong and doing right.

If you thought this write up was long you should wait and see what I will be writing post match tonight. I hope the performance tonight, fires up my hopes for us doing well this season.

UP THE PALACE!

Joel ward for England? Just brilliant.

Very big game tonight.  I fear for Palace if they lose this one. 

That is the general feeling among Palace fans.

Hmm thought about for a little bit and it isn't the end of the world, losing tonight. It's from the point where we look like a decent tight knit unit that I will start judging us because at the moment we aren't even as good as last year. I think we have a squad good enough to click and roar home to 15th place by seasons end too. Just awful atm. Bolasie is key to our revival, I hope he looks a lot sharper than he did against the 'pool tonight.

Crystal Palace
01 Speroni
02 Ward
21 Moxey
15 Jedinak
03 Mariappa
27 Delaney
13 Puncheon
12 O'Keefe
16 Gayle
06 Campaña
07 Bolasie

lol bolasie is an abs clown.

Arsenal up next.....

Fulham fans win chant of the year IMO.

"We're winning away, we're winning awaaaaaayyyy"

"How shit must you be, we're winning away"

Golden.

We'll take Gayle back for 350k

On the way home atm. That was shocking tbh, very slow in the midfield throughout, only looked like some sort of threat when Chamakh came on and we reverted to a 4-4-2.

Think we were unfortunate for them to score two worldies to negate our goal, they were superb goals, that first one has to be goal of the season so far.

Wind out of our sails at that point at 1-2, then we really did look poor. Think long ball to Chamakh as our main strategy is the best way to go as we are shit in midfield.

What? Other than the fact the song has been sung by teams for the last two years.

Love Ollie.

Deserves better than that floppy haired arse of a chairman.

Some comedy chants tonight that some of you might not have heard from Palace.

"Premierleague, we're having a laugh..."

"Lets pretend that we just scored, lets pretend that we just scored......(roars of celebration, mystifying the fans that weren't listening to the chant)

"We're Crystal Palace, we're not very good"

"Lets all do the conga, lalalala" they got about 10 going before they all disbanded after becoming embarrassingly self aware.

"We're gonna win 5-4"

Generally terrible support from Palace fans tonight. We were really loud at the beginning, but I think we all were just in awe of Kasami's equaliser, and we couldn't recover on the noise front at all.

Fulham fans were good, loud, and in good numbers, going against what I thought their away support was about in, not that many, and quite quiet. It must be because this is a local derby?

I would feel rathersick if he played in front of me while i sat on the bench. Never ever a prem player. Much like most of the Palace side tbh.

The chairman you are referring to is awesome. There is nothing to dislike about him. I think you just don't like the look of him or maybe comparing him to Jordan as they look vaguely similar.

Yeh he doesn't look the finished article atm. Maybe it had something to do with him playing up front by himself. We looked a lot better with him partnering Chamakh in a 4-4-2 in the second half. I never thought Gayle should be worth anything over £5mill though.

We are not good enough to play the ball on the floor in the midfield and think we need to play a conventional 4-4-2 and a big hoofball game to Chamakh and press on from that. We are desperately lacking players capable of passing at this standard. So negative and slow with the movement that we were never going to create anything and we never did have a clear goalscoring chance aside from the first one which in itself was quite fortunate.

Worrying times. I do think Holloway has to realise we are out of our depth technically, in this league and try to work out a system to work on our limited strengths. Whatever they are. I do not envy his job but I do have faith.

One last point.

the 1-4 result flattered Fulham. They scored two goals that were unstoppable, then with our heads down they got two more from untypically sloppy Palace defending from corners.

From open play, aside from the two worldies, they were bang average, or were made to look so by Palace. Perhaps the game would have been entirely different without those wonder goals coming out of nowhere.

What is going on with Chamakh's haircut please?  What's that bit at the back?  And its long on one side and short on the other up top?

But the problem was they absolutely took the piss with passing the ball around and keeping possession in the second half, it was so one sided and Palace could not even complete 2 passes together.

Will Ollie get the bullet, or is the understanding that the team are happy to take the money, invest in the stadium, go down and come back stronger the next year and hence he is under no pressure?

Feels harsh to sack him - they obviously haven't spent enough money to compete.  Unless they think another manager can attract better players in the next transfer window, but they might be marooned by then. 

He sounded really negative and downbeat in his post match interview last night, wouldn't be surprised if he was sacked in the next few days.

It's art for me. You get something new from it, every time you see it.

Acidmouse - I notice that when we are level or winning in games we have looked very competitive and can play some decent stuff, thinking back to Stoke first half, and you can even say Fulham up until their worldie. The problem is when we get pegged back or are behind we show absolutely nothing. It is ridiculous. We begin to not know how to play football. The energy is gone, we don't close down, we cannot pass, and play no through balls, we show no rel attacking intent.

This is a massive problem and we need to show heart here, it isn't like these lads are outrageously out of their depth technically, I think they are mentally. Don't get me wrong, we probably are the worst side int he league technically but good enough to stay up, if we can get mentally tougher and be much more competitive.

Also you have to look at our defending and say that on the whole it is pretty good. We absorb pressure well and do not look unworthy against most teams in this league, even aginst Fulham I cannot remember one chance they had in open play that was down to poor defending, generally that is. Our general defensive play us good. And then we have splatterings of these ridiculous mistakes that we wouldn't have made in the championship. Our goalkeeper hugging his front post, not being able to clear a ball properly, unable to command his box, being dodgy with some shots flying in. We have been excellent from corners all season, until we let in two from Fulham that were inexplicable. We have given two avoidable pens away from Moxey being a bleggard. We have done some really bob basic stuff in not tracking a runner when needed to, or Jedinak not being able to pass, or even KG taking Ashley Young down when he should have stayed on his feet.

Against Stoke, two of their goals were from not being able to clear. I mean it is weird. We look capable defensively until these lapses that come. What I am trying to get at is there is a distinction between our defensive display that we put out most of the time, and then we have these outlandish silly, avoidable errors. I make the point because the errors are easy to resolve. Just make better simple decisions, hoof the ball out if needs be rather than dilly dally for example. It isn't like the core of our defense is completely terrible, I think it is just these isolated errors, which can be mended, rather than core problems that couldn't. But what may be the issue is that at our core we cannot get rid of these mistakes, and if that is the case we have regressed from the championship, where we were not playing silly buggers to the extent we are here. So I think that there is room for improvement here and there could be a short term lift to our defensive problems if we get that mental assurance that we needn't make these basic errors, and we deserve our place in this league.

Then to our mental acuity in the Prem. I don't think any of the players think they deserve to be playing at this standard or that they are good enough. I think we are but they don't think so. I think their technique is good enough to stay up but only with a sense of belief and heart that it is achievable. I get that view from our play when the going is good in games. We have looked good. Look at the Sunderland game, and some of the others when we were not losing. We could play some good stuff. We just generally need a sense of heart that if we are losing or the going isn't good we can turn things around. At no point have we gone behind and looked like we could get back into the game. WTF is that? I haven't seen that in a Palace team for a while, this complete lack of heart when losing in games. It is pathetic. But like the silly mistakes problem, I think it can be mended, and I think if the mistakes become less and less, our heart grows.

A lot of what I said above can be perceived as drivel and I think that is fair enough. I am an optimistic fan and the above is a little cliched for what a supporter may say about his team that, lets face it, are a pile of crap. But we are a decent side technically, we have showed it already, we just need to show more of it more often and get rid of the mistakes.

We went on a 10 game run just before the playoffs without a win and he was very much the same during that run. He would seem dejected in the interviews and it is much more to do with the fact he probbably has a terrible gameface for interviews and is either completely and obviously excited by a win, or looks dejected at a loss. He doesn't often have a good middle ground approach to interviews, unless of course we have lost despite playing well, which hasn't happened in a while to be honest!

I wouldn't say his interviews prove his job in under terrible threat, it's just how he is.

Chairmen have planned for relegation but are obviously wanting to stay up. We have spent to stay up this year, but a lot of Holloway's signings haven't added enough quality. I do like Chamakh and Puncheon from their displays so far and then the rest have been underwhelming, including Gayle. But with Gayle you can see much more promise than many of the others.

I really doubt Holloway is getting sacked, unless he cannot get this heart problem sorted from our players. I mean at least put a fucking fight up in the games and lose with grace, not like this.

How many has Chamakh scored so far? think it is only 1?

press conf for 5.30pm at palace

Ollie gone

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24643421

I really struggle to get the Holloway love in from most of the media

signed 14 players this summer, left two of them outside the 25 man squad and ended up with a weaker team than last year.

An interesting strategy that!

Think this is really harsh.  What did the chairman expect from his low budget strategy having also lost Zaha?

I think Holloway is an idiot, but this makes no sense to me.

What was Holloway's overall record in charge of Palace?

Ant, your dedication to Palace is to be marvelled at but I have seen you use the phrase 'we are good enough to stay up' or similar on a few occasions. What is that based on? From my perspective it should be based on comparing the absolute best performance each team could have and working out whether there are three teams worse. I don't think there are.

Also they were the biggest over performers for the quality they had in their side last season.

Shame he's gone, they might get more than 20 points now :(

Pretty immaculate live tell, you selling any live packages at all?

I have a lot of hope for my team obviously, but there is logic there and it isn't all faith. Pointing to last year. I have been a regular on this forum since the start of 2011, didn't mention a word about Palace until late 2012 when I saw something special and the capability to go up. Put my money where my mouth was, put £200 on at 11/1 and it came in nicely. We had Zaha/Bolasie/Murray and for me we had the two best wingers in the league and the best striker and thought it was enough to see us up, and despite a rocky road it just about was.

This year though, it is a lot tougher to see how we could stay up, but there has been pockets of performances that were good and it is all about elongating those. Like you have mentioned, would these best performances be better than 3 other team's best performances, you don't think they are, I think you are right as well, but I see the potential. Potential that can be unlocked quickly. Something some of the play that I have seen that calms me.

As I have said I think it is a mental problem at Palace which Holloway has just admitted he lost control of. A major reason to him leaving was in fact that second half performance on Monday. It cried of a team that had no self belief, and Holloway admitted he didn't know how to change that. He also admitted to bringing in too many too quickly and getting rid of the core that brought us up, and getting rid of that energy that was crucial to that.

Would say one big part in this is dropping players like Garvan. He was crucial to a lot of what we did last year and then was harshly left out of our 25 man squad. Garvan prophesied on twitter that day he would be at the club longer than Holloway and he has been proven correct a lot earlier than I thought. I think for him to even say that, as a pretty smart young man he is, shows he was gauging that Holloway was losing the players, and it has showed this season.

Generally I think we have the capability here to play good football, enough to keep us up, we just need that togetherness and grit, that Holloway couldn't instill. Hopefully someone else will. I want Pulis for his great record at Stoke. If he does anything similar with us, as he did with them I would be happy. Pulis did disillusion a lot of fans there though with his style of football, but in terms of stabilising this club, he is probably our man. But I really am out of my depth talking about Pulis, my knowledge of prior Premierleague campaigns is a little ropey.

And Rinswun, I hope this didn't come across as me taking anything personally, as it didn't, I thank you for your kind comment on my support of the club.

di canio being appointed in the morning i hear.

Would be close to tears if that happened.

Best manager QPR have had since Terry Venables.

The man will always be a legend in my eyes.

47 on betfair suggest nobody else has been told or it is likely to happen as me shag jennifer lopez tommorow

Views on Pulis please? He has been touted as bookies favourite?

HP - if you are 46-1 to shag Jennifer Lopez tomorrow then I am going to have to reimagine what you look like ;-)

As for Holloway I would love him at Boro.  He is an absolutely top quality manager.

Certainly didn't come across as you taking it personally at all and my original question wasn't meant as a shot, I was genuinely interested as to where the faith was coming from (other than typical football fan faith!). I appreciate your posts as they are always well considered and well constructed. I wish Palace luck, will be a long road ahead. I genuinely hope they don't appointed Di Canio though!

Cheers again. And that makes two of us!

His recent record in the championship has been great. Would say he would be exactly what Boro need too.

Also, came back on here to say exactly the same about his chances to bed J-Lo, clearly the man has skills.

i am a big lay at that price reds

Pulis is insta-favourite for any managerial job that comes up at the moment. I wouldn't want him at my club. Rather go down.

Can you explain why please. His record is impeccable in recent years. What is it about him?

Coral go...50-1 Kenny Sansom. I mean, wtf!


Might as well go the whole hog and get John Beck out of retirement.

Palace want to speak to Pulis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24648077

Interesting quote from one of our chairmen: "You'd love to have someone in place next week but I haven't got a list. I wanted Ian to wake up and say, 'sorry about the blip' and stay."

He continued: " "I was more than happy to get relegated and come back up with Ian," Parish added. "The word 'sacked' has never been mentioned among the directors.

"I've spent three days trying to get Ian in the frame of mind that he can do it against Arsenal [on Saturday].

Nearly got out of tonight without thanking Holloway for his monumental effort during his time with us.

There is a split in thought amongst Palace fans about Freedman and what he had going with us and if he had stayed would we have romped home to the title, or would he have did similar to Holloway, or would he have shown his inexperience and had us settle in mid table. No-one will ever know obviously. Under Freedman, I saw some of the most exciting stuff I had seen in my years of watching Palace from 2003 and I had seen Scott Sinclair and Victor Moses in the same team tearing it up in 2008.

Freedman would probably had crumbled when the bad form had hit and not been able to galvanise the team properly and give them the same belief as Holloway did. Holloway dealt with two pretty terrible dips in form around January and then again near the end of the season and still found a way to remain in the play offs and give the team a belief that they could go up. His tactics at home and away to an exceptionally in form and dangerous Brighton side, were excellent and then again in the final against Watford. Both of their squads were better bar some of our players, but Holloway used all of his experience to guide us expertly to the prem and with all of these obstacles if most other managers were at the helm I very much doubt they would have got the same result of Palace in the Prem.

In the Championship, Holloway demands a respect and I think the players love playing for him, generally, and he has an aura about him that in recent years just gets success. It was an incredible bit of business getting him in and I hope for him another promotion with the most probably next Championship club he takes over.

What he has done in one year at Palace may prove to be one of the most important years in our new history. I think he did well to keep the core of what was going well under Freedman's regime and added his own nous for when things were going wrong, to maintain our charge and ultimately show mastery to get us up. Despite some dodgy summer dealings and the start this year, what he has achieved here, and having the grace to leave when he knows the shit has hit the fan, rather than take us down, is commendable.

Both him and Zaha will have a special place in my heart. Both are complete legends to me.

Doubt he'd move this far up north.

Again, not a shot at you Ant, isn't there an argument for saying that the two dips in form were down to Holloway and had Freedman stayed it would not have been an issue? That was why I earlier asked what Holloway's overall record was for his time at Selhurst Park. I remember watched the Birmingham game on the TV and it was one of the most abject home performances I have ever seen from a promotion chasing team.

I personally feel that Holloway got very lucky in the playoffs and caught Brighton on a day when they were completely flat and Zaha on fire. Seemed to me like he was more of a hindrance than a help throughout his time in charge and in the end got bailed out by the best player in the league taking matters into his own hands.

I just checked his record and in the championship (excluding playoffs) it was: P32, W11, D12, L9 = 45. Prior to this Palace's record was P14, W8, D3 L3 =27. So overall Palace gained 62.5% over their points under him at a ratio of 1.4 ppg.  Extrapolated over a full season this would have seen them end up 10th. Prior to him taking charge, they gained 37.5% at a ratio of 1.92ppg. Pretty significant difference with the same squad imo. Small sample size I know but all seasons are a small sample size.

It's a solid point. I think he only won 3 league games in his last 18.

That is why there is a vicious debate with Palace fans. Would Dougie have had us romping home automatically or would he have fell short. If it was to be via playoffs for Dougie, I doubt he would fare better than Holloway, as he was tactically great for those three games. A lot of fans think Holloway was only good during the playoffs and that he was very lucky to even be in them, as other teams around us continued to falter as badly as we were.

You could also say that we were always doing enough to stay in the playoffs though, but I doubt this, I think if real pressure came to us for the playoff positions, such was how bad we were playing we may have wilted out of the top 6.

One thing that annoyed me with Holloway and something that he really should look into, is the fact you have to play his way or the highway and that is really inflexible. The main reason for our dips in the league were because he was trying to introduce a new style of attacking football when really we were doing just fine under the system of old.

Same again at the start of this season, we were used to the Freedman tactics but he tried to implement a passing game from the back that we were not good enough for which has resulted in some terrible mistakes. Under Freedman, we played real counter attacking stuff, with as resolute a defense as we could muster and when we built we would hit the wingers immediately or if they were covered, loop a long ball to Murray.

Holloway doesn't play like that. So when he is faced with defenders/midfielders that can't hack a high tempo, on the floor passing game he is rendered useless as he can only play his attacking way. He even admitted this in the press conference yesterday. This angers me, just have another gear and build on your style of play very slowly instead of bringing in wholesale changes and expecting us to adapt immediately in the toughest league in the world.

I want Pulis. His record is incredible and even if it will grate me to watch Palace play a style I don't like at least we may be able to stay in the league a couple of seasons. With that base who then knows what could be achieved.

Perhaps I am over hyping Pulis' chances with Palace, a team full of guys that are not a force to be reckoned with just yet. Perhaps he would need too long to get the team going and his tenure at Palace will become a failure, but in terms of being able to keep a team in the prem he could be the ticket.

I think he would be a better choice than Di Matteo. But I would ultimately welcome him too if that was a choice.

If Pulis has priced himself out of the job, which he has according to the Sun at £2m a year, that leaves Chris Coleman as clear favourite for the job. Happy with that Ant?

Would dislike that Chompy. But again anyone that does come in is gonna be supported by me, if he got something good going here then fair play to him.

I wouldn't mind Curbishley myself.

I am very tired click so nothing long.

Very promising performance against Arsenal. Reduced them to 2 chances aside from their pen all game basically with the rest of the game us effectively breaking down their play. We had a few good chances ourselves and aside from the penno calamity Guediora was my mom and now I have done a u turn on him as now I do rate him.A draw would have been a fair result and moat Arsenal fans, I feel, if they watched the full 90, would prob feel the same.

Jimmy Kebe, I just don't see at all as a good player for the prem and most notably of all Gayle is pretty anonymous for us generally. He's young and he could come good soon but currently he looks like he is out of his depth. Again I would love it if he makes me eat my words in the next game.

On the replacement manager I think seeing how we played without Holloway, a change was necessary and now perhaps an inadvertant burden has been lifted on the players, because we are not the same team as the one that played Fulham.

Chris Coleman has come in to 13/8 joint favourite with Pulis for the job, if Coleman gets it I would be very unhappy. Pulis though I think is the man.

If not Pulis, why not Curbishley? He has been out of a job for years, but when he was in his results were superb.

Curbishley normally goes favourite for every job out there, but has yet to even look like taking one.

I thought he had managed to pull a lump in from payoffs, and was just happy getting a few quid commentating.

Yeh I think it was £2m+ he won in compensation. He has stated his interest in the job. But as you said nothing at all on any movement towards it happening, which is a shame.

Coleman's record really doesn't hold up very well to scrutiny and just don't think he is the man for the job.

Had been away all weekend, so didn't actually watch the full 90 and only saw the short highlights on MOTD tonight.

We have a striker afraid to shoot, but awesome in the air, but also wasteful with the ball at feet. Gabiddon and Moxey were terrible for their first goal, and no-one picked up McCauley for their second. We had two good chances all match, the Jedinak header at 1-0 down, if it was to go in, might just have spurred us.

We need the new manager in urgently. I am not very happy it is most probably going to be Coleman, but hopefully he gets something going.

I think we only have two players in our team of Premiership quality in Ward and Puncheon, not counting injured players and we really have no potent attacking players with an eye for goal. Puncheon does have that cutting inside and shooting from range, but his longshots are pretty tame. Aside from that we are struggling.

I know Guediora didn't have much of the game as he went off injured, but very impressed with what i have seen of him in the last two games aside from the Arsenal penalty. He really appears to be a livewire for us and adds something we are severely lacking, going against my initial view on him.

I think we need to coax confidence out of Chamakh, as that will be the key to us having any chance. I think it is in him, but he has to get over the mental block I think he has. His goal against Stoke is somewhat of a testament to his potential, but he really needs to believe in himself and give us that needed outlet up front. Gayle is not up to standard currently. Perhaps we should start with Jerome up front by himself as he may offer more.

And whenever you are in a situation where the previous sentence has just been mentioned you know you are in trouble.

Will only offer the prognosis of relegation after a few games with the new manager. I hope it won't be an impossible job for him, nearly a third of the way in.

Hmmmmm puncheon looks the definition of,championship player to me. What are you basing this on?

I just thought it was widely recognised after his efforts with Blackpool and Southampton in the Prem. It's a loose call from me as I haven't followed him closely. For us this season he hasn't been of prem quality but has showed sparks so of all the team I am allowing him more time.

Putting my tail between my legs too on the hype over Bolasie. The injury to him in pre season really has knocked him back. I think he returned not fully fit and a little lazy and much more showboaty and think he has a huge case of Billybigbollocksitis.

If he starts working as hard as he was last season we really have a player on our hands, but if he remains like he is now we do not.

Dean Moxey is also not good enough defensively as a championship left back and has been the cause of a lot of goals conceded this year. While the rest of the defence, generally, have been playing out of their skins and despite Gabiddon and Delaney not being the best they are not embarrassing themselves.

On top of that Joel Ward is really excelling, which is a shock, and fair play to the lad.

We need to get confidence up front. We need Gayle or Chamakh, or both to step up to the plate, maybe even Jerome. If any of them do and we actually have an outlet up front, the amount of hard work our defence does wouldn't be entirely in vain. It really is calamitous how toothless we are in finishing. I have never seen a prem team like it before.

Or at least remember one from the top of my head. I seem to remember every team had a decent enough top goalscorer if they were relegated or really struggling, but I might be showing my lack of knowledge here.

To be fair I think Watford once attempted a Premier League season with Michel Ngonge as their main striker before buying Heidar Helguson.

I'll keep saying it but this team would be in the relegation fight in the league below, i'm still amazed you have amassed 3pts so early.

I think we 'should' have 2 more points after just reviewing our matches, so we 'should' be on 5. I did this by assigning how many points i felt we deserved from the game going up in 0.5's. I had our win against Sunderland down as a 1.5 btw, just to show I am being fair. I thought that game really was petering out into a draw before we got fortunate with the penalty and sending off.

Despite not playing well all season we have been in every game aside from Swansea at home and Liverpool away. This is down to our hearty defense and decent hassling from our midfield, while the game is still level or we are winning. Of course though they are liable to huge mistakes, but they are doing o so much better than our attacking midfielders and forwards.

Limited Everton to half chances all game. The defence were superb. Palace had three clear cut chances to score but we didn't take them. Gutting we didn't take the three points but valiant effort from everyone, if only we could finish, we may have seen this one out comfortably.

May prove to be a crucial two points dropped come the end of the season.

I wouldn't look at the possession stats too closely either. They were often dilly dallying with it at the back or across the midfield with a lack of intent. I believe we only had 27% of the possession all game but if you see the highlights tonight, you would be wondering how we couldn't at least have scored one.

BBC possession stats are always wrong.

Have a word Man City.

Have a word Swansea, both are piling pressure on Palace by not winning here!

So cute :)

We are gonna look less cute when Karanka comes in and gets 4 wins from 4 :)

chosen the mighty middlesbrough :D

Don't really get that from Karanka

Surely as long as Palace board let him know that he won't get sacked if they go down and it's a long term project then Palace is a better option with parachute money and living in London?

Rene Meulensteen is favourite, just atm, with Dan Petruscu a close second.

Redic how many guys have alternated being favourite for this job. I hope through all of this our caretaker can have a pop of being in charge for at least another month, Keith Millen that is. Has us playing with a great spirit, generally defensively sound and is doing his best to try and coax one of our forwards into finishing form.

He spent most of his life in the basque region and playing career, it is not quite Boro but it is very industrial and i doubt London made much appeal to him

Also he is represented by Jorge Mendes (who isnt) who is very good mates with Steve Gibson and of course Jose's agent as well.

Boro have miles better training/infrastructure than Palace do infact better than a few Premiership sides.

I very much doubt he is short of a few quid was on big money at Madrid as a player then coach/assistant.

Some people don't like London though, I lived there for 18 months (2011-2012) and I hated it. Will never live there again.

Boro also have a much nicer stadium, and facilities. Palarse will have a much greater budget, but it will always be on his CV that his first season he got relegated. Palarses team also isn't good enough to challenge top 2 in the championship as it is.

He'll also be able to have regular Parmo's up there. Best food I've had in a football ground when I went up there :P

Wonder what price Palace are for back to back relegations?

Meulensteen has just joined Martin Jol at Fulham, so Petrescu the hotpot again now.

How many games has Millen been in charge for so far?

Any likelihood they let him crack on until January and bring someone in for the transfer window?

Or just do an Oyston and keep him there until the window closes, so that they don't have to do any dough :D

When I need my daily chuckle I go to oddschecker to see who today's 5/4 shot for the Palace job is.

November 13th - Dan Petrescu!

Gone to Fulham :p

Millen has had three games and in all three a draw or a win would have been a fair result and we have been playing with a great defensive spirit allowing the other team to dictate possession but leaving them with few chances all match and then hitting them on the counter.

We conceded two against West Brom and two against Arsenal, but we generally played very well defensively in both and our attack had more than enough opportunity to get a draw/win in both games but we haven't had that bit of luck.

I think with the way Millen is coaching and how well we are playing since Holloway left, if we do score, it could see us open the floodgates. I hope it's from open play, I hope it's Chamakh, I hope he gets a great amount of belief and kicks on.

What I hated about Holloway and what he has agreed was a big flaw of his is that his team's must play a certain attacking football with ball retention. Never does he like to focus on the defense and from that a counter attacking game. When we played his style we were worse for it most of the time, when we played Millen's/Freedman's style we were so much better.

Now I think that is terrible that you can't change to accomodate your team's strengths and he forfeited a lot of points trying to make us play a certain style of football that a lot of the lads were just not capable of doing.

There is a chance, a small one, that Millen gets a further month or more, to see what he is about, which would make me happy.

From looking at the betting markets (1/16, no-one had gone in past 1/2 before) and Petrescu's agent saying how keen he is, plus our chairmen announcing they hope to have news later on today, he could be our new manager.

Impressed with his record in Romania and Russia and could be exactly what we need. Definitely will be somewhat of an unknown entity in terms of exactly how he will fare, but his keenness, apparently, for a long term contract, seems as if he wouldn't be scared of the task of getting us back up again from the Championship, if that were to happen.

Also, as a weird coincidence he scored 11% of his Chelsea goals at Selhurst Park against Wimbledon (3). May already have a fondness for the place :).

All change. ;)

Petrescu on the drift, & Dyche & Dowie both shortened considerably.




http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/crystal-palace/next-permanent-manager

So he is, he is still odds on though, so the hope remains. I would hope this still goes through as for me he would be the most exciting prospect of the front runners. Sean Dyche though could do a job perhaps. Would prefer Pulis over him though, but it has been reported Pulis has completely scuppered talks with us.

Dowie is the man, really, that I would have a problem with. If he got the job then he gets my support, i just hope it doesn't come to that. It would have been a similar situation from me if Coleman got the job.

Rumours there is a press conference at 3.30pm.

Still Petrescu is favourite for the job, but has come way out to 5/2

I reckon they've talked Pulis into it.

Palace fans on the forums would generally dislike that a lot, but I would welcome it if he could keep us up indefinitely under his reign, despite any unattractive football he may persist with. Results orientated, me.

This is getting like Blackpool now :D

Crystal Palace: the comedy that just keeps on giving.

Dowie surely.

To be fair, finding anyone to even accept the job can't be easy.

Effectively, they are looking for someone to manage their relegation, which is still (officially) 5 or 6 months away.

Imagine the grief he'll get, week after week, from the Media. Then his CV will include took Palace down.

It's a poisoned chalice, just like the England job. 

Meh.  It's 500k a year to stick a bunch of blokes wearing headphones in a 4-5-1 formation and shout "COME ON" before each match, before hoping Speroni has a blinder.  It's also a free option - if you do down then it was inevitable, if you stay up you are the Midas.  Plus if you start next year badly you'll get another £1 million payoff for being rubbish.

What's not to like Tikay?

Reputation.

I don't think it will harm your reputation.  Their squad is a Championship standard squad, so nobody is going to think you messed up if they go down as long as you make a decent fist of it?

I reckon the Palace fans would probably take right now relegation with a few scalps along the way and finishing on 35 points if you offered it.  The real fear is the Derby style nightmare season.

That misses the point, though - just taking the job auto-downgrades you as a Managerial prospect. He took the Palace job.

The only guy not on a hiding to nothing is Millen.

Why on earth would Sean Dyche want the job @ Palace?

He's built a good little side up at Burnley, who might well being going in the opposite direction to the lads from Selhurst, come May (or maybe the 1st of Feb).

I'd say leave the hot potato with ex-Watford Ledge Keefy Millen, and look for a realistic replacement if/when he fails to keep 'em up.

And I really think if you're silly enough to be looking for some 'exotic foreign/South American' coach, with Palaces track record - you'll probably end up with Paddington Bear, Ant!

I think they'd bite the hands off the person who would offer them 35 points.

Pulis shortened right up again now :D

Such a stupid market. The bookies are laughing all the way to the bank.

Pulis' odds for the CPFC Job since Holloway left

Be doing well to trade the right side of this graph!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZcRD3qCQAAIilk.jpg:large)

No one wants the job do back to pulis and palarse giving into to his wage demands.

Baffling stuff. why not just stick with Holloway?

Thought that Parish wanted him to stay, but Holloway was convinced it was best he left.

I'll be glad when Palace get relegated

Make sure to tell us what you really think :D

Palace earnt the right to be there by beating my team, who didn't show up on the day in the Play Off Final.

I'd much prefer a 'big team' - Villa, Newcastle, or ideally both - to go down, to be replaced by two 'unfashionable' clubs.

The Prembore has murdered English/British football in less than a generation     ...........      Boooooooo to 'Modern Football'!

lol 35 pts tikay, good one

You jest!

It was not me that suggested 35 points!

BBC have put up an article saying we are in advanced talks with Pulis. They haven't put up one article about any of the potential hopefuls suggesting any of them were going to take over, despite the odds at times. They have just come in now and stated what most probably is fact.

BBC have a knack with all things Palace to report only when what they are suggesting will probably go through. So I do think Pulis is our man now solely off of that, which is probably unwise, but not terrible of me.

Super Tony Pulis imo if he was to keep us up. Palace fans would eventually all welcome any style that would result in wins, with those that are annoyed gushing with the potential increased stability.

It may be a culture shock after last season though. That was some of the best stuff i have seen in my 10 years watching at Palace. The Bolasie, Zaha and Murray trio were a joy to watch with huge levels of expectancy and excitement any time the wingers were given the ball wide.

It is a shame Bolasie appears to have dropped off. I think he is just missing that hard graft aspect, that will probably come if the whole teams morale improves. We also have Murray back in contention for January which could be great for us if he can be anything like he was in the earlier parts of last season.

But I fear he may have dropped off of the pace for good as his last 10 games in a Palace shirt brought only 1 goal and that was a penalty, with him being a passenger in all of those games, believe me when I say this, Wilbrahim was the better option. And I hold Murray getting injured was the key to our promotion, allowing his dire form to be ousted and Wilbrahim to come in and be great in the air and in ball retaining.

There were rumours though that Murray had a long term hip injury that he continued to carry that completely nullified his performances, with Palace pushing him through games in hope that he could turn his form around especially as there were not many games left in the season and he could rest it up over the simmer. Perhaps that injury will be fine now too.

If so we have a potential predator available from January onwards. Much like a slower Lewandowski.

Oh Ant, how I admire your optimism.

Glenn Murray likened to Robert Lewandowski

This is a new highlight.

Is Dean Moxey the new Roberto Carlos?

Or perhaps Stuart O'Keefe is the new Andres Iniesta?

Most palarse fans think this way.

Murray doesn't have a squad number so whose coming out in January?

Where's Chompy to save me here. Twas a joke as I tongue in cheek likened the two before and he keeps on bringing it up for a laugh where he can.

Obv not completely off my rocker but if you must know Joel Ward is the new Cafu.

Grandin would come out.

Another great signing then. That other French bloke still being paid who didn't make the squad?

Pretty sure that ended via mutual consent.

http://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/pulis-joins-palace-1190906.aspx

Official. We have Pulis. He will take charge after the game today.

Get the fuck in, etc.

They had a one on one opportunity with Sagbo clean through and definitely should have put them one up.

Palace had no real chance during the game, just a lot of what could have beens with bad last balls and lack of awareness. Our defense aside from their big chance were superb. Every ball in the box dealt with and we did reduce them to only that one real chance in the match. Up until their last minute corner melee that should not have been given in the first place. They had a header cleared off of the line, then immediately put back in on the half volley which cannoned against the post. Real heart attack inducing stuff, and would have been outrageously undeserved.

Our goal was really surprisingly well taken and Cameron Jerome was superb for it, does well to get past his man, by sidestepping him, coming in from the angle, knows its a bad angle for a shot so picks out Bannan at the back post and he just slides in before his man to put us 1-0.

Bolasie all game was frustrating. He has so much talent with the ball at his feet and the capability to get past his man, but he constantly has Soccer AM's showboat reel in the back of his mind as when it comes to the point where he needs to shoot or pass after he has done a piece of great skill, he waits for the man to come again before attempting another bit of skill.

He was not like that in the championship, he would get past his man then get the ball in immediately or get the shot off. I think he is missing a goal hanger to target at the end of all of his passages of play, Murray provided this before and Bolasie's crosses for him all of last season were superb. This season we have no real out and out striker as they are always dropping in deep, and we are failing to push up and support enough.

His sending off was a little farcical. Have a look at what i mean about him in that it opens up for the shot for him but he tries to cut inside and goes into danger, loses the ball then goes in after it with a clumsy challenge. A yellow maybe, but I would assume that it will get rescinded for our next game.

Of the defense Jedinak had a worldie, he has finally got back to his best, all of our back line were exceptional, aside from the one moment Gabiddon most notably didnt clear that through ball that got through to Sagbo.

The game deserved to be a draw in all honesty, as both keepers in the match really didn't have much to do, but with some of the bad luck Palace have had this season I will take the win, and it was a beautiful moment seeing Bannan hit the back of the net. I was very surprised.

Have seen a few pressers involving Pulis now and he comes across well. In his most recent one he alludes to the fact our set up is not properly aligned to football in the top flight, but he thinks that the guys in and around the club are 'Palace mad', a phrase he has used a couple of times now, endearingly, and is generally positive about his prospects at the club.

He talks of the need to bring in new players in January, but was full of praise of the attitude of the current crop of players.

He stated that he was a little worried he enforced too much of his own tactics towards these players too soon this week saying he was going to look to filter that down before kick off. He was generally full of praise to Keith Millen too, and also mentioned he is going to have an U21 player who scored a hat trick in a development game recently, come in to the squad for today.

Of the game later on today he has hinted heavily that he is going to keep the same team in that won against Hull at Norwich, with only a change for Bolasie as he is suspended, assuming Puncheon will take his place. Will be interesting to see who starts in the lone striker role though, Chamakh or Jerome.

I do not know what to expect against Norwich, but would hope we look as good defensively as we did in our last two.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/gravesen-makes-fortune-retirement-moves-vegas-stunning-model-113143405.html

Well done Thomas gravesen but I fear this could all end in tears. Does anyone know if he is a good poker player? I can't imagine his roulette and blackjack results are too good:)

WAL

Haha, fair play.

Any love for Palace tonight? I was on unders in the West Ham v Fulham game at the weekend and feel a little raw that it never got home I though the hammers looked woeful and doubt they would have score those goals against anyone in the league.

I would have preferred Pullis got off to a decent start but it wasn't to be but I am marginally interested in sticking with him I think, he and Olly might actually have made the perfect double act.

Palace in the games I watched previously looked ok on the ball but a little disorganised and missing a natural scorer at this level. If Pullis gets them organised and working as a team then he might turn things around and tonight could be the start of that.

Unders doesnt seem a bad bet, think Maiga is terrible. Morrison is really good though and could rip Palace apart.

palace look awful!!

wow least deserving half timelead in premiership history.

That is one goal conceded in 4 games now. Pretty impressive stuff. I thought the first half was a pretty awful game with them having two good chances to our one, we put ours away. Then in the second half, despite the flow of play being quite balanced, on a lot of occasions when we pushed forward, we had good chances while they had none.

Barry Bannan was the man of the match for me, as his passing/crossing capability is great, he is assured on the ball and he is the man to make things happen for us. Cameron Jerome worked his socks off and generally played well up top, a shame he couldn't convert that one on one. Chamakh took his goal well and played alright all game, it just seems though he is playing at 50% atm.

Jedinak had a very good game I thought and snuffed out a lot of West Ham's attacks. I thought Puncheon was awful, KG played ok, Moxey was caught out a few times defensively and remains our weak link in defence, while I thought the other 3 played well. Delaney in particular with one lunging block for a nailed on chance comes to mind.

Pretty mind boggling how solid we look at the back. We should get absolutely decimated by the better teams in our league, but when Everton played us at Selhurst, we looked comfortable for large spells, different story playing better teams away from home though.

I was pleased with our attacking display in the second half, Jimmy Kebe coming on for Puncheon actually improved things a little, and he was unlucky not to score. Johnny Williams played well for his short spell too, and for the mediocre side we have at the minute we have decent strength in depth for the poor premier league standard we are. Aside from those featuring tonight we can call upon Gayle, Bolasie, Guediora, Mariappa, Phillips, Murray (soon), Parr, Thomas and whoever I may have left out. Obviously not world beaters, but I think with Pulis at the helm and what i envisage to be his knack for getting the best out of players' limited attributes, I can see us remaining a solid team throughout the season.

I am interested to what Pulis might do in the transfer window. I would be disappointed if he is looking to get a CB or a RB in as I think Ward/Delaney/Gabbidon are holding their own, with only Moxey the real liability. A left back would be good, but I don't know what has happened to Parr, who is a good LB and is decent defensively but not as good as Moxey pushing forward, plus, Moxey has a good long throw which helps.

In midfield I think the central roles are up for debate, especially if Pulis persists with the 4-4-2 he played today. Only two spots, and KG and Jedinak really are limited in their attacking capability, both are defensive midfielders, but perhaps in our setup that is a good thing to have, with their emphasis on hitting the wingers when they can and using them to push forward. There is a like for like replacement on the bench in O'Keefe, and the only other man i can think of in central midfield is Guediora who I was really impressed with before he got injured, I think he can do as good a job as KG in the middle but offer a much better attacking prowess.

Thing is Bannan and Williams can play centre mid too but are lightweight, and preferred on the wing, but with the abundance of choice we have on the wing it is going to be interesting to see how Pulis plays it. I would say we would benefit a lot from a prem quality central midfielder that is good defensively but can be a better attacking outlet than Guediora would have to offer.

So a LB a CM and I think a striker too would not go amiss either for the available two spots up front. Jerome and Chamakh are first choice. For the amount of money we spent on Gayle I am surprised he isn't being tried out in one of those spots, but he mustn't be ready. Chamakh, plays well defensively when we need him, is a good headerer and most of the time is good at linking up play and holding onto the ball, tonight not so much, aside from his goal, but it was a bit of an off night for him. With Jerome, atm, he has been playing very well, as good as we can expect and he is quick and strong and is proving a threat in the air too. His finishing obviously isn't the best, same goes for Chamakh but he is trying.

We lack a great goalscorer, or at least a man that will look like he could score everytime he gets the ball, with our two current strikers, you don't really back either. With Murray coming back, perhaps I will back him but the pace of the prem may see him have trouble. Phillips too may not be able to cope. So I would see the logic behind bringing in a striker in January, however, I would like to see Gayle get a thorough testing before that happens. So potentially three new signings.

Also interestingly, Speroni's contract is up in the summer and there has been murmourings that we may look for a replacement keeper in the transfer window, as Speroni has been at fault for some of our goals this season. It is already known he isn't the greatest commander of a box, isn't the greatest at claiming crosses either, and recently his shot stopping has been poor. His strengths come in one on ones, reflexes and handling from shots that just bounce in front of him. I could see how Pulis might want someone else in, but I can't think of anyone who would be better that we could get.

All in all, I think Palace will be staying up as we have been resolute defensively and I think we will continue to hold our own at home to nearly every team, and away to mid table teams and below, and with our increasingly better cohesion up front, we can begin to cause a lot more problems for oppositions, that under Holloway we were not doing. Bannan is the core to our attack, if he gets injured you can kiss our form goodbye, the same goes to Jedinak in midfield really.

A left back (especially if Parr remains mysteriously sidelined) and striker are needed in January to really help us out.

I really appreciated Big Sam explaining to us all in his post match interview in great depth what the term "a six pointer" means, clown!

Grats on the win.

Hmmmm

I think you just can't pass the ball well enough. It doesn't matter how good the two centre midfielders are t retrieving the ball they literally can't keep possession. The defence also give the ball away in areas way too much too.

I was going to post in the thread that Jerome was the worst forward I've seen all season and chamakh seems like he literally doesn't give a fuck.

Moxey as you say very suspect and ward was way too wasteful on the ball.

Not sure i agree about bannans delivery he was lucky 2/3 times that he had second chance of a cross he seems to cross well from open play but didn't beat the first man enough from set pieces and that's absolutely critical for a team like palace who rely n set pieces so much.

Also though kebe and puncheon looked like league 2 players.

Anyone else think mark noble was different class tonight? Easily best player on the pitch.

Pulls is pretty funny too "do him cam, go on cammmm" all night.

Gabbidon and Delaney seem pretty solid at the back I think pulls needs to sign a new striker and central midfield box to box player but I doubt he will sign a striker after dwight gales big money move.

Danny Guthrie would be a really good signing IMO.

Its a funny game this, I watched most of the first half and Barry Bannan was horrid, I think in one two min slot he gave the ball away 4 times, lucky not to have conceded from one of them. You could see the Palace Captains face and what he though of him trying to dribble past someone when the simple overlap pass was on.

He was at loan at ours and was average, saying that he scored the winner last week and setup the goal last night, masks alot of things that.

When is Lewandoski Murray due back?

Really feel like Palace can do this under Pulis.  They need to beat Cardiff on Saturday though, as the fixture list is nasty after that.

Agreed.

Ty Mondatoo, wp on the Newc run, same to Pleno on that front, vive le revolution!

On Bannan, he played well defensively too, cutting out the one on one chance for Cole as well as setting our chance up. Aside from Williams there is no other semi gifted passer in our team. He has the license to only serve up one great ball in 3 and still come out smelling of roses because we are such a limited team on the passing front.

Of his successful passes they are more incisive than we are used to here. His good crosses are excellent, up and down and in the spot, and in play he normally does a lot better than from set pieces.

Camel, I think Murray is going to be available for the new 25 man squad pick in January. But who knows? McCarthy has been two weeks away from full fitness for the last 3 years, Parr has probably been shot dead, no word from Jack Hunt either, Guediora probably only went into the physio room with a cough and now has broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Dungbeetle, Palace optimism? Do you want to still have a rep on this forum for sanity?

Pleno, don't know enough about Guthrie to know if he is what we need but cheers for the shout. You say we would rely heavily on set pieces, but from memory I only remember two of our goals coming from them, most of the time our goals come from some suave interlinking play and deft finishing.

Our two central defensive midfielders and defence may be terrible at passing btw but all are courageous tacklers and will make it very tough for teams to break us down. Not been spanked since the Holloway sacking and in all of those games it wouldn't have been outrageous to see us have won all of them, considering how close each game was.

The point being that their defensive output is so good atm that their current poor attacking output can be overlooked. Also if we do change one of the central midfielders you may see a terrible leakiness, so we might just concentrate on our wingers and forwards for all things attacking with us.

FUCK OFF Palace

Well that's a shame.

:D

Aside from the first 3 mins when Campbell had a free header from 6 yards out, really looked easier to score, but he picked out Speroni, Palace were dominant.

1 goal conceded in 5 now.

Jerome and Chamakh played excellently, as did all the players. And I am proud to be Palace atm.

Delighted for you Ant. Europe a possibility? :)

Cheers :)

Pulis has done it before with Stoke, all we need is that Fa Cup Final :)

massively concerned about the to finish bottom bet now

Very good today cardiff were not much cop but you look a different side now already

Ha!

Every dog & all that.

Pleased for you Mr Ant, really.

I think you couldn't rule Palace out for bottom, mainly because of the start we had curtailing us and keeping us currently in the mire, and you have a lot of teams down here with good quality. Fulham and Sunderland, for example, are both teams capable of staying up and showed good quality in their games on Wednesday night. What I think will be the case, by the end of the season, is a very shallow bottom half of the table with up to 8 teams all in the ruck, perhaps one team will wave the white flag to cement one relegation spot, but I think the other two will be a bit of a lottery, if not all three!.

Palace were great today. Defensively sound again, dealing with crosses, aside from the first one, with relative aplomb, dealt with their surges well with both our wing backs and Jedinak starring there, and up front we had two men on fire. Chamakh is a man revitalised and i would be surprised if that doesn't get mentioned tonight on MOTD. He is playing off of the front man, he is dropping into midfield linking play and being very strong on the ball and in the air, and he was aiding a Jerome who is very quick, is also very strong, and he too was passing well to link up play.

They strike you as two attackers that are both of the feeder role, they would benefit from playing alongside a greedy striker with an eye for goal, but instead they have each other for an odd couple romance that is blossoming.

Saying that, Jerome is getting a delightful habit of taking on his man, beating him and flying a shot off, being the direct striker that we need, and it will be only a matter of time before he scores a goal of this nature for us.

Chamakh, could learn a thing or two on that front. He has only let off 5 shots all season, but has scored 3 of them, incredible stat! I am not sure whether or not i appreciate his lack of wastefulness or want him to take on more shots with that ratio! Definitely would rather him shoot more, he has a great finish, but is a man coming out of his shell, if he gets out he could make double digits, but i have an inkling he is going to take on the provider role and shy away from shooting opportunities. I have not quite seen a striker like it but when he does line up for a shot there is a weird expectancy!

I am concerned Pulis is going to bring in too many changes in January and destabilise the team if anything. On current form it would be a bit of a disgrace to look to oust anyone from the side, aside from Moxey with a new LB, which I would understand. Also if we could get Zaha back that would be welcomed too obv.

With Zaha, he had been given a free role with Palace to express himself, sometimes losing the ball cheaply on the wing, but with the ease of license he had, he would often create magic and opportunity after opportunity. At Man Utd, he would not be allowed to play as selfishly and with that you take away the reason he is any good in the first place.

I worry if he goes to any other team aside from Palace in January, he may be used as a part of a strict system that won't let his creative juices to flow. The best thing for his career, I think, would be to come back on loan with Palace.

Ultimately I trust in what Pulis is doing here, and I hope he doesn't mess with the core of what we have got and only adds to it. It really does make you wonder if Holloway had any sense at all, he would have allowed us to play more direct football, away from the short passing possession game and he too could have been seeing the same results Pulis is. With no disrespect to Millen, he had little managerial experience, only managed us four times, but in all of those games we were so much improved, then Pulis comes in to reinforce that.

It angers me that Holloway isn't the one reaping the spoils of the record we currently have and perhaps a successful season here, because of how he got us up in the playoffs it was the least he would have deserved.

Good stuff :)

Osvaldo's goal was so so naughty.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VePQDcuKx2g

.

Bet you have got that Mourinho interview on Sky+, Ant :)

Haven't seen it, but I am looking forward to it! Joel Ward kept Hazard very quiet today and he isn't even a left back. Really was an excellent Palace performance. The result perhaps a little unfair considering how we did shut them out, aside from a couple of chances for them very late on, but we were pushing for the game a little.

O'Keefe, extremely unlucky not to score, Bolasie could have done better with a chance too, and Jerome from range should have done better.

Chamakh and Ward were contenders for man of the match from Palace's end.

Mourinho was very complimentary about the Palace performance, and of them generally as a team.

To be fair, he is hardly going to look up and say that they're awful, but you'll like the interview :)

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuhNJNFKM8Y
.

What do you think about tomorrow ant?

I think you should look out for whether or not O'Keefe or Dikagcoi can make the starting line up, if they cannot (both are taking late fitness tests), then we need to set up in a way we haven't done all season. We would have to forfeit using two holding central midfielders, and just resort to one, and having 3 creatives in midfield of the 4, rather than 2 enforcers and 2 creatives.

Essentially this means that we probably won't be looking as solid if either of those two names do not partner Jedinak in the midfield tomorrow, we could find that our defence is laid more bare, and chaos may ensue, like it did for a lot of the Holloway campaign.

Perhaps a little bit ott from me, but having two holding midfielders probably is one of the key reasons we have conceded so few recently and I have no idea how we are going to fare without it. Could be that having Bannan playing down the middle, with Bolasie and Puncheon out wide, is enough of an attacking threat to push Newcastle back towards their goal and alleviate the pressure on our own defence. But what worries me is, since, Holloway has gone, we have invited pressure, parked the bus, and then hit Chamakh as soon as we could to move up the pitch and sort of counter from there, tomorrow we would be forced to set up in a different way if O'Keefe or Dikagcoi do not start.

Of the Newcastle threat, your record recently has been superb and fair play to you. I have looked at the highlights of the Southampton game though and thought that you didn't really look too menacing. Your chances coming from profound defensive errors from them. You did have Cabaye missing though, and I wouldn't mind a lowdown from you about the intricacies of your team if you can, please?

If Palace do have two sitting midfielders, we may sit quite deep and let you have a few shots from range which you may consider to be a good thing considering your threat from these.

Bannan is a threat with crosses and his passing ability, and Chamakh is great in the air and with his general link up play. Jerome will look to hassle and chase down the ball and if he gets it to hold it up. Bolasie can be great if he gets going, in terms of his flair, but often he can get greedy and miss the better option, his crossing is good though. Puncheon is often very direct, with a good cross too.

Of our back four, I would imagine Nexcastle will be looking to expose our left back in Dean Moxey, I would consider playing Ben Arfa left wing to run riot there, but Gouffran probably has enough! Ward has been our stand out player at right back this season and ultimately our two centre backs have been solid. Jedinak too has been great and benefited a lot from not having to play Holloway's way with short passes out of the back. Our more direct style now suits us so much more.

I think it will be a low scoring contest, and you will do well to score at Selhurst considering our recent record, but yours of scoring in mostly every game this season is very impressive, and wouldn't be shocked at all if you opened us up. If you did sucker punch us at home, with expectancy on us to get back in the game, we may crumble as we haven't really fought back all season in terms of replying with goals once we have gone behind aside from last week away to Chelsea. But that may be a one off considering there was no pressure on us there to get anything from the game. Despite Newcastle being favourites, Palace definitely have more pressure on them to get something here, and reacting to that pressure is going to be key to how we fare for the rest of the season.

Very important game, and I think there will be a lot learnt from it whatever the result.

I am going to the game tomorrow and will have one of the best seats in the house, if you want me to have a closer look at one or two Newcastle players you are not too sure about I could let you know what I think. Free of charge. :)

we will probably set up 4-5-1 like we did in our last away match with Man United, so sacrificing Shola for cabaye

      Krul

Debuchy Williamson Collocini Santon

         Tiote Anita
             Cabaye

Sissoko             Gouffran
              Remy


Id like you to watch Remy, I dont rate him at all, in fact I think hes very poor, your opinion will be interesting. I guess Cabaye too who can flatter to deceive at times, lastly Santon who people have very mixed opinions about.

I think Tiote will have Bannan for breakfast so I wouldnt suggest playing him there. If you have an athletic attacking right winger they could exploit Santon perhaps who leaves himself vunerable at times and is a little naive.

Will be a cloe one im sure.

Will look out for them, cheers for the lowdown.

Neither O'Keefe or DiMaggio are fit to play. We have moved our RB Ward into central defensive midfielder and brought in Mariappa to RB, even though against Chelsea he was probably our poorest player.

Moxey has had a week out with injury and back for today, to add to the instability. Good news, probably fir Newcastle, but it definitely could work for us.

Makes things interesting from the get go anyway!

Holdddd

Got Toon in a handicap league, so I'll have some of that.

gg ant, looking forward to your overall analysis though.

think debuchy is best rb in the league?

Fair enough. I said not much else happening, pretty loosley and am probably incorrect, you are right. It just wasn't as dominant a performance from you guys that I would have expected considering our team today. Yes you won 3-0. At 2-0 we could have got back into it, and at 1-0 too we had a good chance to get back in. You had Gouffran hit the bar at 2-0, as well and then it gets hazy from me. You were not in utter control out of your class per se, but our distinct lack of it, but it can be argued that you guys were always doing enough so needn't have pushed harder.

I think the result flatters to deceive is all I am saying, because we didn't have our proper side out. You were great defensively, but without our two defensive midfielders providing the platform, we were always not going to offer much.

I don't want this to come across as sour grapes. It is disappointing to me that Pulis set up the way he did from the start, playing a right back in midfield spells trouble, and because of that, I find it hard to credit Newcastle for anything close to an awesome performance. It was professional, but you did take a controlling 2-0 lead from two fortunate goals, and with that cushion it can be a lot easier to play well.

Remy I thought was fantastic btw. Very quick and strong, held the ball up well, and was always looking to get on the wrong side of the defender. He was limited to a holding player's performance as he didn't get the opportunity to run in behind really. Cabaye was excellent, on a few occasions he could have just turned and ran with it but he likes to play a quick first time ball if he can which is obviously fine. Santon ate up Bolasie's threat, as did your RB with Puncheon, and your two centre backs were superb in the air all game, mostly, and were only a little shaky for the chance you allowed Jerome in the first half.

I thought Chamakh was a different class today with some of his touches and moves, and he embarrassed Tiote at one stage with a beautiful turn. He really is so much better than any of our attacking players it is scary, he is beautiful to watch at times. A shame though he couldn't defend better for the first goal, but it probably isn't his job to be that deep anyway!

pretty interesting, our fans view of the game was that Remy was awful and Cabaye went through the motions, its funny how people see things different.

We dont claim to be this out of control flairy team. We are solid and try and be good defensively and have players who can score goals when they get a chance, Cabaye, Remy, Gouffran and even Sissoko and we are trying to be solid at set plays.

We have Ben Arfa though who if we need some form of energy or spark can just come on and do as he likes. I think the first time he touched the ball today he took on 5 men and set up Gouffran who hit the bar and then the next time took on 3 and Shola should have scored. He is a ridiculous human being but the way we set up is solid and he doesnt feature in that line up.

In the past we would 100% have lost today but weve changed our mentality somewhat.

I think one of the main problems for your team is defensive distribution, from deep in midfield and at the back, you give the ball away far too easy. Your only attacking threat as far as I can see is crosses into the box for Jerome and Chamakh who are not particuarly fast. If teams play a high line and work on stopping crosses its going to be difficult for you to get many goalscoring opportunities.

I thought Speroni played decent today and stopped it being 5-0.

Agree about Williamson being very good in the air and a no nonsense defender, I wonder if he will get a look into the England set up, hes been one of if not the best centre half in the last 2-3 months in the prem and without doubt the best English centre half so far.

The main problem we have is keeping our squad happy, we have

- ben arfa
- mbwia (who was really good before colocini came back)
- cisse
- guttierez
- steven taylor
- sammy
- rob eliot
- Marveuax

Who arent getting a look in at the moment but could go to teams like Palace, Sunderland, Hull, Cardiff etc and be regular starters, this is when Pardew earns his coin.

It seemed like Remy and Cabaye didn't have much to do all game but with what they did do I thought they did it well. Remy had no real opportunities from memory but I thought he played the holding role well and he is so quick.

Disappointed we didn't have our proper setup, as I think we would have given you a run for your money even with the strength in depth you have. Not playing probably our best players in Ward, at right back, was the biggest blow and the key to all of our problems really.

I think it just makes a bet on Palace more appealing because we have a team capable of great output there, but for one reason or another all season they haven't been on a consistent run, disguising this fact. Something I think that will change when we just have two defensive central midfielders fit, which is probably for our next game on Thursday. If O'Keefe nor Dikagcoi are back, then we probably give Aston Villa the kick start to their season that they sorely need right now, especially without Ward playing where he should, our wing backs will be laid bare to the venom that the likes of Agbonlahor can possess.

On the Speroni front, I think he needs to be calling for the ball to stop Gabbidon poking into his own net. He has cost us probably at least three goals this season and I am sure Pulis wants competition for him and probably his replacement in January.

Just a case of who, you bring Rob Elliot up, what do you think of him? Would it be beyond reality to think Forster would be interested in Palace? What about Kasper Schmeichel, who I rate as a fantastic keeper.

Elliot is good and solid he won't be leaving us though that's for sure he's a good back up and we have nobody else. Stoke have a lot of goalkeepers so if you got anybody I'd not be surprised it would be from them. The butland signing was abit weird really. They must have bad somebody lined up for begovic.

I still think that left back is your weakest area. Sissoko is not a good winger really but was made to look really good today. Just feels like a weak part of your team that will always be exposed. You can see the difference today.

Gouffran and sissoko great defensively nd work so hard and thus little crosses came in but puncheon and bolassie basically don't track back, you can't afford luxury players in your team.

How were the newcastle fans?

Yeh left back is our weakest area and with my rants in recent weeks I thought that went unsaid.

By the end of the game when we were 3-0, I actually turned to my mate and said, well they deserve this, for travelling so far, and they were pretty giddy all game because of the goals. We tend to drown out the away fans, as we have our ultras singing non stop, but they were good.

Was a complete sell out nearly from the looks of things and its great to see that. Just a shame we didn't have the opportunity to really get very loud yesterday.

I think a left back and a striker is probably high on the agenda. I think elsewhere we can cope, but have a feeling he is going to be interested in a centre back too. And a goalkeeper of course. Hmm, considering the amount of players he wants to get in I very much doubt he will be allowed more than two. A left back should be a certainty, then I would imagine a striker too.

We can with the two central defensive midfielders you see, that was missing today and the whole line up really didn't know how to react, thus our terrible performance, and making you guys out to have a much easier day of it.

I just feel like 4-4-2 is such a bad tactic, especially for a team with poor wingers where service is so important. If you play 2 DM how can they gt the right service? It ends up being a whole gap between midfield and attack.

Btw the conditions looked really bad today so I doubt many teams would have looked very good technically tc;

Yep they were terrible. The rain is fine enought o deal with, but the wind was stong.

Well the answer to the formation question is really that we don't play a 4-4-2, it is more like a 4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1, with Chamakh often dropping in as a attacking midfielder. He basically is a midfielder to be honest with you. We normally have Jedinak anchor in defensive midfield and have Dikagcoi partnering him but with a freer role so he can push up more and support our strikers, so he covers more of the centre of the park and provides more support while essentially being a defensive midfielder.

They have been influential for us for the past two seasons, and have made us a decent defensive unit when we play under the Pulis more direct way. Our wingers looked bob basic today, but when they have two defensive midfielders and Chamakh in front, they get hit by us with more of the ball so that we can move up the pitch, and more space is there as I think our central midfielders would draw oppo players into them. It does mean though, that Jerome gets isolated up front but Chamakh has to be the work horse and try and push on as much as he can.

You really did see Palace at their most poor since Holloway has left, and it was down to a Pulis gamble that did not pay off at all. He won't be starting with Ward in central midfield again methinks, if he does than that is a shame.

Looks like it is going to be quite bleak for Palace in these next two games. We have 3 defensive midfielders out meaning we may have to play a RB at CM again, alternative central midfielders are too lightweight for Pulis.

Would prefer the lightweight midfield and better technical strength than have a stronger guy in there that dkittle really know what he is doing with limited passing ability because he is a blooming RB!

If Mariappa, Moxey/Parr, Ward, Delaney and Gabbidon are on the sane starting line up team sheet you can safely assume Ward is playing CM again and that will probably spell huge trouble. Not to mention Chamakh isn't playing today, suspended with 5 yellow cards. Everything good mainly goes through him so someone will try to step up to the plate.

I hold out hope for today as Villa aren't on the best of runs and after the test run against Newcastle perhaps our newly structured side could gel better. We're 4/1 today and that sounds about right at large underdogs. The gane after this is Man City away, so Pulis probably will go gung ho today and tell us to ease off the gas a little when we almost inevitably lose to Man City.

So I am hopeful, but the hare facts suggest Villa have probably been priced up wrong, especially if the players mentioned all start, as imo they should be 4/5 but there is closer to evens available.

Palace playing the team I dreaded would be named but in a formation that appears to be an outright 4-5-1.

Didn't watch the first half, but heard it was dire. Second half and Palace definitely had the clearer chances, they also two had one or two but none were finished well enough to actually be considered as unlucky.

Puncheon nearly scored twice, Bannan nearly scored too, and then Gayle while one on one with Delph, stepped inside from just outside of the area and whipped one in top corner. After not showing much all season, and to be fair to him, with the way we have been treatin ghim, playing him out of position for the most part, in what is probably only around 180 mins in an outright up front position he does a wonder goal.

An absolute peach, and now we are freerolling our next game against Man City.

What do people think about Premier League being the best league in the world? Would love to see opinion on this...

We perhaps out of the top 5 footballers in the world, have 1 in the apparent best league in the world, however we probably have the most competive league with regards to the title race in recent seasons, whilst in Spain, it's between 3 and Germany there will only be one winner? It might be competitive, but we only have a couple of world class players & we don't really have a big game like Italy, Germany and nowhere near Spain big one. I'd probably say the atmosphere in UK is nowhere near as good as the others.

Read an article a few days ago & wondered, is it really the best league in the world? We haven't got the best player, the best match, best team, best atmosphere or best manager....... probably just the competitiveness & fast and furious pace?

Don't know if Merson is back on the bugle, but he has just said that Palace have been absolutely outstanding, and not really allowed City to play.

I would like it very much if Sunderland and Cardiff could both park the bus!

Suarez! Bale and Ronaldo had some amazing years in the league before moving for a lot more money. Kompany one of the best defenders in world? Exciting youngsters, Lukaku, Barkley, Hazard, Ramsey.
Italys big game, milan derby? Does it get more viewers worldwide than for example a liverpool man u game or a manchester derby, what makes them not as big as italys big game.
is germanys big game bayern vs dortmund? never even hear much about that.
spain of course, el classicos are the biggest.

That was correct for long periods. No real clear out and out chance until the goal, and Palace should have at least scored one too.

I still think though that Palace's performances will still be overlooked by MOTD tonight, commented on by saying a brave perforamnce, but not going into detail, thus meaning value will still be had for a lot of season long bets potential for Palace.

The fact Toure, Negredo, Zabaleta, Nasri and Aguero were not playing from the start for one reason or another probably puts an unfair good shine ont he performance, from Palace's perspective, but we have now made Parr a permanent LB and he is more astute defensively. And despite a host of dodgy performances at RB in the past for Palace, Mariappa had a solid game.

We had a RB in CM today, and after looking out of sorts against Newcastle in his first game there, has settled very nicely in the Villa game and now the Man City one. A real utility man.

Also I think it needs to be said Merson has had a soft spot for Palace most of the times he has covered us, always praising our fans and normally always saying how well we have played as he appreciates back against the wall stuff.

It needs to be said we are looking a lot more fluid up front, since we have had time to settle under the Pulis regime. We sit back and absorb pressure for large periods and then counter with pace, with our two wingers and normally always look menacing. A shame Jerome had to limp off injured because I don't think Chamakh plays too well being the last man right up the top of the pitch, so much better when he can help out in midfield. I think Gayle should have come on for Jerome instead of Chamakh, and swapped him on for Bannan at a later stage, just in behind the striker.

The Newcastle game was goals conceded by a penalty, an OG and a deflection, with large parts of the game chasing and having to open up more thus inviting pressure. On top of that, Ward was playing for the first time in CM, Moxey at LB was stil injured but played and got hauled off at HT for Parr to have a shot run out, cold, Mariappa was acclimatising at RB and generally the changes and the added pressure of the terrible conditions shone through. Despite that they score three fortunate goals. They would have probably scored in different circumstances though if the opportunity presented itself, but as it stood, that is what happened. Newcastle were better and deserved the win before it sounds like sour grapes.

I wonder how Murray fares when he comes back, although I fear it may be in February, as his knee is still not quite right. We also have Guediora due back soon which will be a great boost.

I do wonder how much the prices on season long Palace bets have deviated since before the Newcastle game, as we are now out of the relegation zone, if I still think they are value I will let you know.

To the Prem being the best league in the world, I think it is for the reason you stated about how well contested it is compared to the others. Who really cares that much about better players stomping the hell out of much much inferior ones? Quite a lot of people, but not in comparison to how many appreciate, Stoke beating Chelsea at home or Sunderland doing a number over Man City. It is a unique league, and long may it continue.

I think you might actually be in danger of over valuing Palace now Ant. Yes City have been on cracking form recently but they are never going to score 4 in every game and at the end of the day they kept a clean sheet and won the game. Palace have lost three of their last four with the sole win coming from a worldie in the last minute against a team who had won 1 game in 6. That's not going to happen every week. Pulis teams are always tough to break down which is why the games have been close but I think t is severely optimistic to think that they could finish in the top 12 unless they have serious investment in January.

Football games are won and lost on small margins. Saying that Newcastle only scored from a pen, an own goal and a deflection shows a naivity that those goals didn't stem from small Palace errors/lack of ability. From not closing players down quick enough or players being half a second too slow to get their body in the right position to defend. In the PL, teams punish these little mistakes far more regularly than in the FL. I haven't seen enough quality from Palace this year to suggest that they can punish these mistakes as well as another, more experienced Premier League side.

I don't think Palace will end in the top 12, I just think it may be value to back it. I would invest quite heavily in the staying up aspect though.

You are right that Palace do not punish mistakes enough, but we have been coming out of our shell a lot more recently and are starting to look more dominant going forward. With this though I think it will take time before we ever click properly in that department after how terribly bad we looked at the start of the season. Our problem hasn't been chance creation of late, it has been finishing.

None of our players look likely to score when they have a shot, unless it is Chamakh but he has only had 6 I believe all season, scoring 4. Jerome loves a shot, but is seemingly useless at finishing, especially from range, same goes for Bolasie. I think with Puncheon he is a little unlucky. He makes a lot of chances himself but I think his shot power lets him down, and the two central midfield men have a decent shot on them but are often too deep to ever get a shot off. Bannan is not bad either but he goes in the same category as Puncheon, as a guy that is probably lacking in the shot power department.

It is good to see the amount of chances we get but we do need all of these guys to step up to help out are defense and defensive midfield that have been fantastic under Pulis, aside from the Newcastle game. You mention games are tight because Palace are going to set up like that under Pulis, and you are right. Under Millen against Everton at home we were against one of the better teams in the league, reduced them to half chances, and had a lot of chances ourselves to put the game to bed but didn't. We are never out of games, and have been unlucky not to score more in more of them. Aside from Newcastle where I believe it was an anomaly, for the reasons stated in my previous post.

I may be overestimating Palace's value for sure, but I would be surprised if we aren't value on most markets available to them because we're been quite unlucky in games not to score more goals, and if that ever does click, or maybe Murray comes back and is an unlikely revelation, it will show just how well the team is currently operating.

I think Palace are defensively sound, but are really lacking an attack force that can finish, and will that change? Probably not, but lets hope the amount of chances created gets increased more and the finishing confidence eventually improves with that. If it does click up front with that defensive base, then you are reaping the rewards of investing in the season long bets.

Even on current output we have won 4 of our last 8 which is mid table form.

Games like the one coming up against Norwich are crucial.

Tottenham 2 Palace 0

First half Palace were on top, with Tottenham having one easy long ranger saved, and one belter that hit the woodwork that was unlucky not to have gone in. Of Palace's chances, the penalty is the most obvious, Puncheon completely skied it. And then generally Palace got into great threatening positions but did nothing too note worthy with it, as our crossing was awful and finishing poor too. One header was cleared from the line from going in from a corner, most notably, from Bolasie which is a shame.

Second half appeared to be men versus boys as Spurs must have been given a rolicking as they came out energised and were on top for the whole half really. Palace didn't have an answer against their fitness and quickness. The first goal did come from a very basic defensive error which is a shame, both centre backs going up for the same ball with no man covering the player coming in around, that man was Eriksen, who proceeded to emphatically smash the ball past Speroni.

Of the second goal, Defoe showed his class which contrasted heavily with Soldado's performance, who he replaced in the second half, and with his wily positioning tekkers and quick feet managed to lift the ball over an already grounded Speroni.

Tottenham were shocking in the first half when compared to their output in the second. I think it was them improving rather than Palace playing particularly poorly in the second, perhaps we tired, I am not 100% but Spurs looked pretty classy and I wasn't expecting it. Palace just couldn't keep up with the pace and they managed to find gaps in a defence that looked disheveled, where in the first half it was resolute. Probably was our players tiring. The solidity at the back was just not there in the second and I would like to grant that to Tottenham playing well over us playing too badly.

Palace can't cross to save their life. I would love to see the stats on it. We got into awesome crossing positions and were just completely wasteful with them. I am not sure we got a cross to a head at any point in the match in open play, they were mostly way too high, but some came short. In these spots I ask that Palace just do a higher percentage success rate cross in the floater types rather than the whipped ones, as we need to get some success with them. Gonna say 10 failed crosses. So disheartening.

We haven't a finisher on the team either and that is a worry. No point having the best of the first half if Tottenham can finish so much better than you, deadly in comparison. Puncheon can manufacture a shooting opportunity and so can Bolasie but their shots are often not powerful enough. Jerome has the power, but often terrible accuracy, and Chamakh just doesn't shoot enough, which is sad as when he does he is often deadly. The other players in the side aren't often high enough to have a go, but when Guediora came on in the second half, he had a rasping shot that Lloris was beaten all ends up by, from a good 30 yards out, which was refreshing to see. I think he starts next game and Ward will be pushed back into right back as Mariappa really doesn't look too comfortable at this level.

Would be over optimistic to think Murray can come back into the team soon and be operating at a half way decent level to start. He has had a long lay off, and he just might not be good enough for the step up anyway. He wouldn't offer the same harrying threats that Jerome has because of his pace, but if presented with a chance you would back him to score. Will be interesting to see how he fits in as a luxury player with no pace. He thrives off of crosses, and with his movement in the box allowing for space, perhaps that encourages the crossers to be more accurate.

As it stands that match has opened my eyes to the possibility of relegation. I always thought that because of our solidity at the back and chance creation that we will be fine. In the first half today, we did not resemble a bottom three side at all, but if we continue to be wasteful, you cannot count on our defense holding out for the whole game. Add onto that if Palace go 0-1 that may have knocked the stuffing out of Spurs for the whole game and Palace may have eeked out the same score if Puncheon had scored that penalty. If you score, quite often its less likely the oppo will. So that is a roundabout way of saying without a finisher, we may well be doomed.

That is what we need desperately in Januray. Someone like Hooper would have been a coy buy, if we are being realistic on the standard of player we could attract as I think he comes across as a natural finisher. Or perhaps we take a punt on a player like Rhodes from Blackburn.

When I say finisher, he doesn't have to even be hugely prolific, but just enough to get us into some games and maybe raise the feeling among the rest of the players.

Feel for Pulis. I think he has done a great job since he has come in and think he has been unlucky not to have some more points on the board with some games. This isn't his team really though and Holloway really did buy for the sake of it in January, so with the added stress of that he is doing well. I hope he can do enough to keep us up and then build for next year as I think he is the man that could make us prosper, but it is going to be tricky staying up this season. If we do I don't think next season would be as tricky to stay up.

Without looking too much into Stoke and how they play away from home, I really like Palace at 11/8 at home to Stoke on Saturday. We are due a big home result.

they outplayed Newcastle for 35 minutes at St James when we were 6-6 in wins or something similar.

Guidetti is quality.

Hopefully bangs in a couple ;)

Not particularly encouraging.

if you sign leon best thats a really great signing. hes a really perfect player for your type of team, very good finisher, great in the air and battles v hard whilst having a good touch. id take him over remy any day of the week!

Would help me doubly in the fact I am Irish and him getting gametime in the prem would benefit him greatly for his international career.

Not sold on him at all, but very open to him if he does come, hopefully it would be a good match!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuhNJNFKM8Y

chamakh for good

Very clever.

But the guy might be the worst singer I have ever heard.

Why didn't he get Any to sing it?

I actually posted that youtube link on this thread and on tips for tikay, but I was ignored lol. While I might have Horseplayer and Camel with me here...

What makes Palace to be in the top ten at 50/1 such a bad bet when the next worst is at 33/1? 4 points difference from tenth as it stands. Post Holloway, Palace have played 14 got 17 points. At that rate from where we are that might be enough to get tenth. Of course it is about maintaining that rate or even bettering it, from what Pulis has been working with it is amazing.

But anyway back to the point, is that value or not?

Tonight's game against Hull is huge.

Think a win may set a precedent that will be carried on into the next huge home fixture against West Brom. Want something to click up front so desperately it is unreal. If it does I will be over the moon as we may reel away from the bottom chasing pack, but as this is Palace, I really shouldn't be expecting something that huge, especially as we still are favourites to go down!

I have a ticket for the game tonight too. If anyone wants me on scouting watch of any of the Hull players lemme know and I will give my opinion. I am going to have my eye on McGregor and Huddlestone. Not sure if either are as good as they are hyped up to be, but perhaps they get outclassed only against top oppo and shine a lot more against the likes of Palace. I shall see.

would be interested about Alex Bruce

Nice one will do.

Shame about Cabaye, he ripped us a new one at Selhurst recently.

Pissing it down in South London atm, Palace were nowhere near as solid in similar conditions against Norwich and Newcastle, but with those it was devilishly windy where today it is pretty mild. Perhaps soggy conditions underneath doesn't bode well for Palace at Selhurst. Maybe I need to stop trying to make excuses for potential dropped points. Meh.

I root for Palace most of the time, because I know you love the game, Ant... However, tonight it's my pocket, and I have to go with the Tigerssssssss!

You've broken my heart. :D

What bet are you on where you need the tigers to win? Is it the season long Fred bet for Hull to be the top promoted side?

I hate Palace. I never used too, but i cant stand them anymore. Great recover from you bastards now. You're not a prem team but you'll probably be there instead of the hammers next year:(

I'm on Hull +49, so that wasn't quite what the doctor ordered...

Still, if West Ham finish bottom my massive odds bingo trixie is live!

You really don't care about filtering your dislike for Palace do you? :)

I think Cardiff and Stoke are going down and then not sure about the other one, but with the Hammers performance yesterday, I think you can make a rise out of it. Games won't be as tough as that obv and Carroll may become more deadly. Have you got all your players back fit in defense that made it such a shambles recently before Chelsea?

I think whoever goes down will be contesting their place until very late on in the season. Obv Palace could be put right back into it, no delusions there, especially with the potential no points this weekend away to Arsenal.

Hull game was a real scrappy affair where we edged our chance, sat back and made it incredibly tough for them to score, and Jerome up front did well to get us further up the pitch with flick ons and his pace, but aside from Puncheon no-one really looked capable of scoring for us yesterday.

It is an incredible 15 goals scored all season, and for our position that is impressive. Means those clean sheets have really given us a chance. Just need to be supporting Puncheon more in the goal threat department and it is very odd indeed that I look at Jerome, think he has had a good game but he posed no goal threat whatsoever. Just how Pulis sets up that makes that possible. It is a shame Bolasie can't shoot for toffee, i think his ratio at one point last season was 2 goals in 50 shots as he and Punch are the ones getting the opportunities to strike.

I hope Jerome finds some form with us because his work rate has been pretty good and if he could just get on the score sheet more often it would ease the load on Puncheon and the rest of the team who have to try and heroically defend for 90 mins every single game. As Pulis has said before, every game for us is a cup final now and you can see it in the players that that is how they are treating these games which is always going to go down well with the fans.

Can't see many fans being annoyed by the tactics of Pulis when they are so successful, and until our squad dramatically improves I wouldn't want anything changing about it!

Up Pulis' Palace!

Found myself disagreeing with the MOTD pundits again and this time it was with their view that Rose's tackle on Dzeko was not a penalty but it so clearly was. Rose connects with Dzeko's back leg before getting the ball and thought that was some ballsy, top notch officiating from the linesman that could have easily have kept quiet and not put himself up there to be shot at.

‏@BeardedGenius
Crystal Palace have yet to confirm any transfer news. Typical - you give them an Ince and they take a while.

Go on Rene, sign them up!!

Brilliant.

Hennessey better be a sub to Speroni if he comes.

Seems a strange one that

He is on a big contract at Wolves so cant believe he is taking a massive paycut or even a small one to sit on your bench?

Look what a year under Ince has done for his lad...

I predict the same weening off process Friedel suffered when Lloris came in.

Puncheon permanently is a real exciting one, so is Tom Ince on loan.

Then I have no opinion on Ledley and Dann.

With Hennessey I hope he's better than he was last time around in the prem with Wolves, had him down as slow footed. With Speroni's performances recently it would be hard to oust him and as I said above I would be shocked if Speroni is benched.

Anyone enlighten me on Scott Dann and Joe Ledley please?

I'm not actually disappointed Ledley has left. If that helps?

It helps in disheartening me if that is what you were after :)

What are his pros and cons and is he defensive or attacking? Hard tackler? Leader? Good in the air? Good shot from range? Good passer? Gonna try and get my value out of you here Celtic, I hope it's not too taxing :)

stats for you ant

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgQ9i-YCQAIt2IL.jpg)

Nice, keep em flying my way when you see anything else. Think we are a threat to anyone now, and with Ince, it is exciting times, could actually be 10th tonight, imagine that.

Saying that, remembering the last two games where we played under bad blustery conditions we were not at the races at all, at home to Norwich and Newcastle. Hopefully we react better tonight if it is bad.

Speroni seems to be getting a call up for next months friendly for Argentina

very well deserved imo

On his day he gives you all those things Ant.  I think there may have been issues behind the scene because he was never one of the managers favourites. 

I think his problem was he thought he could just sail through the SPL without any effort.

SPERONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Sorry ant, only just saw this. Basically what kmac says above, though I didn't know about the behind the scenes stuff. I think he's done well for you since he joined?

Just never really had any consistency from what I can remember, and I don't recall any stand out games in Europe either really.

Cheers Kmac and Celtic.

He has had one game and that was filling in at left back, so didn't see much of him at all in the centre of midfield.

Would go ahead and say Pulis will be riding him hard to try and prevent any lazy performances and I hope he turns it on for us in midfield. Surprising though that we are probably keeping both Jedinak and Dikagcoi with Ledley in the middle as what was going to happen before our Everton away fixture got called off. Would have thought Dikagcoi would have got the boot. It seems to be Ledley playing in attacking midfield behind the striker, forcing Ince out to wide left, with Puncheon wide right and Chamakh the lone striker.

Great news if Speroni makes the Argentina squad, definitely deserves a cap at the very least. Only thing I have had against him really is some poor looking dealings with shots from range that I thought he could do better with. He really has stepped up to start claiming the ball much better in his box under Pulis.

Going to be really interesting to see if we offer him a new contract for next year and will he still be our number 1. Hennessey being our number 1 from next year out does not fill me with too much happiness tbh, but I will let him try to prove me wrong of course with any run out he does get.

Off to the Stadium of Light tomorrow and a chance to get a good look at the team in person. The last time I was at a game was the back end of January, with the one nil win at home against Hull and was thoroughly impressed with the resolute defending, something that appears to be only coming back to the fore for Palace. The last home game against Southampton proved to me, I think, that solid defending was back after a shaky time of it with the introduction of the new players. Yes the goal conceded in the last game was horrid, but it was an anomaly in an otherwise great defensive performance.

I was happy to see it as with the great base Palace should have a chance in every match they play, and that is what I love about the tactics. Quite often our defence has held on until past half time and a little into the second half at the very least, basically opening the door to us nicking a goal and holding on for everything we've got. And when you have a lead to protect, you really see better team performances to hold out stoically. Problem is we have found goals hard to come by, but with Bolasie on the sort of chance creating form he is in, perhaps we can bundle home some fluky efforts and then sit back and protect the lead.

Never been to Sunderland before, getting there for midday. Up the Palace.

As small an update as i can on Palace atm.

I think we have played well in our last three, despite not much attacking potency, because our defense has been resolute. Ok we lost against Soton and Newcastle, but the nature of both goals, makes me not look too forlornly about it.

Bolasie is a huge threat but it is a shame he only seems to have 65 mins in him before he gets puffed out and in need of a sub. He does however put in a huge shift, so it is not terrible.

Jerome is the key to any chance at all of us maintaining any sort of attacking potency. He started against Newcastle, after being dropped for a fair few games, and his strength, work rate and pace are something to be admired. He works well as the lone striker, able to chase down lost causes and link up play quite well. He is a hopeless finisher though, and quite often makes the wrong choice in pass or shot, but he does orchestrate a lot of chances by himself that no other striker in the team could. Murray came on for the last 15 mins on Saturday and with that effectively, we had nothing going forward and it was one way traffic, with Jerome on he alleviated pressure.

Murray needs to be in games where the opposition are playing a deep line themselves so he doesn't have to use too much pace to be a threat, and he can rely on his wits; with Bolasie and Zaha last season pegging the opposition back, he had free reign to get poachers goals. When the opposition play a relatively high line against us, to counter our deep one, Murray as a lone striker is basically made redundant, and hopefully Pulis realises this.

We have a tough home run in, and a much more convenient looking one away from home which is a little upsetting and i hope that we get a bit of luck our way to get a few tight wins under our belt rather than the cagey draws and losses. With the way Pulis plays though, we are always in every match seemingly, and I do not mind the tactics at all, it needed to be done to give us a chance of survival. We really need the luck to fall to us now, but in terms of a goal outlet at the moment, I do not see one, but it just takes one of them to randomly pop up with a goal and then I would back this Palace side to defend very well to see the win out.

Interesting fact is, that under Pulis, in the 6 games he has presided over in the Premier League that Palace have scored first he has guaranteed the win, only conceding in one of those games the 3-1 win against WBA. So hopefully if you do get the opportunity to see Palace go one nil up in the last remaining 8 games, the win is in the bag.

I really can't call our chances for survival. I was nearly sure we were fine, before Murray came back into the fold along with the three new signings. Before we changed up the team we were flying and were making a hatful of opportunities, despite wastefulness. Now, it is we make rather a lot less opportunities, but our defense is probably a tad more solid. Still a little aggrieved that Gabbidon was dropped, but Dann has done alright, despite being desperately at fault for giving Cisse the free reign to grab the winner on Saturday. I think he fell asleep assuming the whistle was not far away in coming, but it is a shame that a terrific performance throughout the 90 mins up until that point is overshadowed completely by that one mistake. Ledley also was a fault for allowing Ben Arfa to cut inside on his favoured left foot, where shepherding him out wide with seconds remaining would have probably been cleverer.

I think it is Bolasie's time to shine now, I hope that a goal is coming with him, one he creates himself, and that he takes it upon himself to carry us out of the bottom three tussle. I think he has the potential, I just think it is a matter of something quickly falling for him, and then him building up momentum, he is already one lovely flair player to watch, and remains my favourite player in the team. He is beginning to reach the same form he had all of last season and it is superb to see.

Lovely.

Congrats Ant. I've been a big Palace critic (perhaps a bi-product of living in Brighton) but I have to day that is an astoundingly good result. Well played Pulis and players. Looks like he's going to continue that 'non-relegation' streak this season!

https://vine.co/v/MeaB03x7JWA

Feel they could still get top 10 especially as Newcastle are in freefall. Be great to bring that bet in :)

gg sunderland?

1/10 at the bookies says yes.

Would be nice, but very much doubt it is on because of the run in. Also Pulis saying he only needs one more win to stay up, and from seeing his interviews recently, he will experiment with team selections and risk further good results just to get some use out of our large squad if staying up is guaranteed, imo.

I hope he sticks with our best 11.

Kagisho Dikagcoi should be sweated by anyone following Palace, he limped off today early. It is a big deal to see him back in the starting line up asap, as the partnership he has with Jedinak probably won't be matched by Ledley in terms of defensive solidity. Both Jedi and Dikagcoi are pretty woeful passers though, but that really isn't their job in this team, they do well just to give a short ball to a more capable passer in the team and concentrate on breaking up opposition play.

I think the recent run of wins could have started a lot earlier for us, but now, finally, some luck is breaking for us. Saying that though Speroni kept us in both the Chelsea and Villa games with a fantastic save in each.

Bolasie remains the livewire of the side, and would love it to see him pop up with an important goal, already provided a great assist today.

Great defensive solidity, and it isn't boring to watch either despite being so low on the possession stats generally, as we hit the flanks quickly and are often exciting with it. Still missing a potent striking threat, but Jerome has been a great leader of the line with his pace, and his contributions have been great despite showing no real goalscoring potency.

That is why I hope Bolasie can step up to the plate like Puncheon, think it is a mental block with him now, he is more than capable, I just think he needs some confidence and a bit of luck with the initial breakthrough.

On Murray, he has looked pretty out of sorts recently and he mentions a lot in interviews, that it is next season he is looking to be primed fitness and match practice wise, which is interesting.

To round up, the change under Pulis has been magnificent, spearheaded initially under Keith Millen. I think the main reason is the two sitting central defensive midfielders constantly breaking up play in the middle that keeps distressing the oppo, and then add the back 4 and GK, who have been great.

Mile Jedinak has probably been the best performer under Tony Pulis; wins so much in the middle of the park through interceptions and is why he leads the stats in the Prem by some distance in that department.

Saw a post on another thread about the atmosphere at palace and reminded me to post this.

I am a season ticket at "the home of the prawn sandwich brigade" and currently sit in the newly formed singing section. When palace were coming to old Trafford I was excited after seeing their fans at home and thought the away fans would be incredible but it didn't seem that way. Happy to be told otherwise but the away fans seemed quite poor and considering the home fans were so good I was shocked.

My question really is are palace the only club with what seems like louder and more vocal home support than away support?

I've got my tickets for Palace away sorted for a few weeks time, I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares to the Britannia a few years back!