Another week another frustrating Palace result. The Eagles lost in the final minute again after Christian Benteke’s dubious penalty.
Joe Ledley had given Palace the lead after half-time but Alex McCarthy’s howler allowed Roberto Firmino to equalise before Benteke’s winner from the spot.
But what did we learn from Sunday’s defeat? Here are five things:
1) Officiating is at an all-time low
Referee Andre Marriner didn’t have a vintage game by any stretch of the imagination, missing some obvious yellow cards and ignoring some clear fouls but he wasn’t the worst offender. His linesmen made some bizarre calls; flagging for a foul against Zaha after he was sideswiped by Moreno and missing two clear offsides in the first half.
Then there was the winning ‘penalty’ awarded by the linesman at the death for the smiling of touches from Delaney on Benteke that he would have needed Superman style vision to see.
And these are just the latest in a long line of errors this season, not just against Palace, but in all Premier League games. The standard has been laughably low and something needs to change.
2) It’s time for Speroni
Speaking of changes, it’s time for Pardew to swelling his pride and stuck Julian Speroni back in goal. The Argentinean is third choice in Pardew’s pecking order but with Wayne Hennessey and Alex McCarthy both making mistake after mistake it’s time for Jules to get the nod.
His Palace career is far from error free but over the past half a decade or so he’s been one of the most consistently dependable members of the squad. He must be wondering what else has to happen before he gets the nod. He has the experience and understanding with his back four to help the Eagles see out the rest of this frustrating league campaign.
3) Injuries are taking their toll
Not that it’s an excuse for losing to 10 men having been a goal up but the Palace squad has been decimated through injury this season. Rarely has the team been the same from week to week and at the moment it’s at its worst. Jason Puncheon and James McCarthy are long term absentees while Connor Wickham missed out having scored four in two games, a horribly unfortunate time to pick up another injury.
And during the game Scott Dann and Yohan Cabaye were both seen limping, the latter enough to be substituted off with 20 minutes to go. After he did, the game swung in Liverpool’s favour big time.
4) No-one is undroppable
It isn’t just in goal that performances haven’t been up to scratch; in recent weeks seemingly undroppable players like Yohan Cabaye and Joel Ward have been shadows of their former selves.
While Cabaye stepped it up against Liverpool, Ward had another game to forget. AS did Pape Soaure at left-back. Both were guilty of ball watching and getting caught out positionally, Ward in particularly having a horrible time against Adam Lallana and Ablerto Moreno.
No-one is undroppable and if this was Zaha or Ledley or Jedinak or Mutch they’d be dropped in a flash. And it’s not like there aren’t options for replacements; Martin Kelly can play anywhere across the back four and has been very dependable when called on this season.
5) The season can still be salvaged
Yes, the result was bad against Liverpool. Yes, the finally 25 minutes were not good enough once they went down to 10 men. Yes, Palace are bottom of the form table for 2016. But things can still be salvaged.
If Palace win at Reading next Friday they are in the semi-final of the FA Cup for the first time in 21 years. And they are STILL closer to 8th than 18th at the moment despite no wins in the league since December 19th.
A few wins before the end of the season and it will all be ok, we can forget this horror run and work on kicking on again next season. The quality is there, it’s just about finding a formula to make it work.
What do you think? Comment below!