I guess if we were hard to break down, plus scoring plenty of goals, we'd be top of the league. Set pieces, crosses and long balls seem to our issue. At least, it should be something we can work on.
Eze and Hughes should freshen things up soon enough.

Red and Blue Army!

We are going. I’m staying over. I hope for something better.

!!!

Does anyone know how these grades are determined? Judging from the grades on other players who scored or assisted on goals, Kouyate's assist may have helped his grade considerably.

Well done Villa on getting the win. They stopped us playing our game, packed the midfield and won nearly every second ball which was enough to take the 3 points.

We couldn’t get going yesterday which was a shame as we would have made in roads to climbing the table. Felt we missed Andersen yesterday which was a blow. His measured passes and going forward would have put Villa under a bit more pressure and freed up Gallagher to exploit the spaces behind their back 4.

I don’t want to dig out individual players as I thought they were all below par. As for the ref he got a few decisions wrong, the advantage of play was a bad one and the flashing of the red, which was never a red.

My only grumble is the time wasting that goes on, every team that has come to Selhurst has done it to disrupt our rhythm and control of the game. Why the ref didn’t book their keeper is a mystery. He goes over after collecting the ball and complains that his hamstring has gone, holds up play. Then in and instance launches the ball 150 yards into the middle of the park. I would have stopped play , gone back and booked him and told him to take it again. Think the Opposition were playing on the refs first game in the Premiership and a bit of gamesmanship was going on there.

Wish I was going to Leeds on Tuesday to see us make amends.

It was a cold day to watch that dross - no plan or cohesion and at times we looked clueless.
PV should have started Gallagher in the middle and Luka on the bench - sadly he is too slow for our new way of playing now.
Maybe that meant Ayew out wide?
Whatever - our midfield failed to press and win 2nd phase balls and that was game over really.
Olise was nervous on his full debut sadly but he has to start sometime.
Tompkins, first proper game, struggled as well.
My bile though is reserved for Benteke.
Send him somewhere - anywhere, but Get him gone - lazy, lacking in foresight and ambition.
He is like a statue and should be ashamed of himself.
We concede from another set piece as well - what is going on?
Taking Wilf off and leaving Benteke on was baffling I'm afraid as well.
Villa cheated and the ref was worse than expected but we lost the game rather than they won it.
It was always going to happen but it shows our lack of strength in depth even though we are on the up generally.
Leeds followed by Man Utd could make this an unpleasant week for us.