Burnley return to action tomorrow at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace, where things have changed dramatically since their 1-1 draw at Everton last Monday, with Roy Hodgson standing down and being replaced by Oliver Glasner.
Never mind Palace; if we want to stay up, we need to start winning a lot of games. We, along with Sheffield United, appear to be doomed, with thirteen points each. The lowest amount of points a team has ever had at this stage of a Premier League season and survived is seventeen, demonstrating how tough, if not impossible, it is.
Luton, who promoted alongside us and the Blades last season, are in the other relegation spot with twenty points, trailing Everton on goal difference. Everton are now causing chaos. Without a point deduction, they’d be in twelfth position, likely safe from relegation.
That leaves Palace with Brentford and Nottingham Forest, the two teams on either side of them, as the next most vulnerable, and they are all running at a point per game right now or very close to it. If Everton wins their appeal, it will take a minimum of 36 points for a team to stay up, leaving us with a further 23 points from our remaining thirteen games.
It’s been difficult all season, but last week’s terrible 5-0 home defeat to Arsenal has tilted the scales even more against us in the eyes of the fans, with those in attendance either stunned or having left well before the finish.
That was the worst of the season. We sank horribly against one of the league’s greatest teams and simply had no answer. The defeat may have been significantly greater than five goals.
I suppose Palace is one of the greatest locations to go when you need a result. It will be our sixth Premier League visit, and we have three wins, two draws, and two losses. Our last setback there came in early December 2018, when James McArthur and Andros Townsend scored for a 2-0 victory.
We had previously won there in the Premier League two seasons prior, with Ashley Barnes and Andre Goals scoring for a 2-0 win, our only away success of the season. Since that previous setback, we’ve won twice, both behind closed doors. In June 2020, Ben Mee scored a 1-0 win. The next season, we won 3-0 with goals from Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson, Jay Rodriguez, and Matt Lowton. Lowts’ goal won the Up the Clarets Goal of the Season title.
We need to win four games in a row in this league, and Jay Rodriguez, who came in last week and showed Burnley fans that he cared, may return. He admitted, “It’ll be a tough game. It’s always difficult to play at Palace, but we have to go there and fight incredibly hard to gain the points. We need to give everything. We have to give it our all on the pitch and be competitive from start to finish.”
Incent Kompany surprised everyone last week by naming an unchanged team. That is something he will not be doing tomorrow, as Aaron Ramsey is out of the race. He was stretchered off last week, and Kompany acknowledged Monday that his season, and most of 2024, was done. He did not confirm the injury, but it seems apparent that he had an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, and we can only hope that his recovery goes well and that he returns fully healthy.
He joins Nathan Redmond, whose season has ended, on the injured list, which also includes Jordan Beyer, Luca Koleosho, and Lyle Foster. Koleosho was injured at Wolves in December, and we were told it would be long-term. Foster had surgery but should not be out for long.
Beyer’s problem is an unusual one. He went down early in the game against Aston Villa at the end of last year, and the bench was plainly aware of it, as Hannes Delcroix was ready even before the medical team reached Beyer in the penalty area. He has already missed six games, five in the league and one in the FA Cup against Tottenham, but the boss stated he appears to be progressing well but refused to set a comeback date. He was more optimistic about Mike Trésor, noting that he had some sad events, including illness, but wanted to be available again for this game.
Last week’s team against Arsenal included James Trafford, Lorenz Assignon, Dara O’Shea, Maxime Estève, Hannes Delcroix, Aaron Ramsey, Sander Berge, Josh Brownhill, Wilson Odobert, Zeki Amdouni, and David Datro Fofana. Subs include Arijanet Muric, Vitinho, Charlie Taylor, Josh Cullen, Jack Cork, Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Manuel Benson, and Jay Rodriguez.
Things have not gone as planned for Palace this season, but they are still five points clear of the drop zone in fifteenth position in the table. Roy Hodgson was expected to leave as manager at the conclusion of the season, but defeats to Brighton and Chelsea fueled speculation that he might be replaced by Oliver Glasner.
Then, seven days ago, Roy became ill during training and was admitted to the hospital, but by the time they played at Everton last Monday, Glasner had been appointed, with Hodgson having stepped down, bringing his second spell as Palace manager to an end, and most likely the end of an incredible managerial career that began at Halmstad in 1976 and saw him take charge of six different English league clubs, four national teams, including England, and big clubs such as Inter Milan.
Glasner, 49 years younger than his predecessor, has managed in Austria and Germany at VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, which he left at the end of last season. He is the third Premier League hiring since the season began, following Chris Wilder at Sheffield United and Nuno Espirito Santo at Nottingham Forest.
We face a Palace side that has won six games this season, three at Selhurst Park and three on the road. The home wins have come against Wolves, Brentford, and Sheffield United, while the away victories have come against Sheffield United, Manchester United, and Burnley.
They’ve only scored 28 league goals this season, three more than us. Olise and Odsonne Édouard (shown above) have six goals each, while Eze has five.
In his first press conference, he confirmed that none of Marc Guéhi, Will Hughes, Cheick Doucouré, Eberechi Eze, or Michael Olise, who were all absent at Everton due to various injuries, would be ruled out again, and that he would most likely have the same team to choose from.
The Palace team at Everton included Sam Johnstone, Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen, Chris Richards, Daniel Muñoz, Jefferson Lerma, Adam Wharton, Tyrick Mitchell, Jordan Ayew, Odsonne Édouard, and Jean-Philippe Mateta. Subs include Dean Henderson, James Tomkins, Matheus França de Oliviera, Nathaniel Clyne, Naouirou Ahamada, Jairo Riedewald, David Ozoh, Franco Umeh-Chibueze, and Jadan Raymond.
It’s not the first time we’ve visited Palace right after they hired a new management. Back in 2001, after Steve Bruce had abandoned them, they welcomed new manager Trevor Francis. We won 2-1 that day, with Ian Moore scoring both of our goals and Clinton Morrison scoring theirs. I believe we’d all accept the same conclusion tomorrow.
LAST TIME WE WERE THERE
Were things starting to look better for us? We had won at Brighton and beaten Spurs at home the previous week, moving us from last place to eighteenth. Leeds and Everton were getting closer, and for the first time in weeks, there was genuine hope that we could climb out of the bottom three.
Unfortunately, we fell behind after only nine minutes. Michael Olise outmuscled Dwight McNeil, and his low cross was met by Jeffrey Schlupp, who scored from close range with ease. It resulted in a poor first half in which we fell behind by one goal.
We couldn’t have gotten off to a better start in the second half, as we tied just 37 seconds. Wout Weghorst and Aaron Lennon sent the ball to Connor Roberts on the right, who crossed it back to him. Jay Rodriguez’s second ball in resulted in a cushioned header for Lennon, who then deflected the ball back in off Luka Milivojević.
We came close to winning twice. Weghorst had a header saved by Jack Butland, and when he did score, it was ruled out due to a tight offside flag, despite VAR confirming the correct judgement.
The teams were:
Crystal Palace team: Jack Butland, Nathaniel Clyne, Joachim Andersen, Marc Guéhi, Tyrick Mitchell, Conor Gallagher, Luka Milivojević (Jean-Philippe Mateta 60), James McArthur, Michael Olise, Wilfried Zaha, Jeffrey Schlupp (Cheikhou Kouyaté 84). Subs not used: Vicente Guaita, Martin Kelly, Will Hughes, Eberechi Eze, Jordan Ayew, Chrisian Benteke, and Odsonne Édouard.
Burnley: Nick Pope, Connor Roberts, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee, Erik Pieters (Charlie Taylor 60), Aaron Lennon, Josh Brownhill, Jack Cork (Ashley Westwood 60), Dwight McNeil, Wout Weghorst, Jay Rodriguez (Ashley Barnes 88). Subs not used: Wayne Hennessey, Matt Lowton, Phil Bardsley, Nathan Collins, Kevin Long, and Maxwel Cornet.
Leave a Reply