The only difference I see is Eze is finally starting every match. He's someone the other team has to worry about besides Zaha.

Also, Benteke is proving to be useful knocking the ball down. We need that since we can't really string together a bunch of passes.

I'm trying to not get too excited, since we play West Ham on Wednesday.

2017 Feb. (Van Aanholt) Palace 1 - 0 Middlesboro
2018 Jan. (Sako) Palace 1 - 0 Burnley
2019 May (Batshuayi, Batshuayi, OG, Van Aanholt, Townsend) Palace 5 - 3 Bournemouth
2020 Feb. (Van Aanholt) Palace 1 - 0 Newcastle

Sadly for us, Westham played Friday which has given them a couple more days rest. Makes all the difference these days with so many matches in short periods, small squads and in our case an aging squad. Let’s hope it doesn’t make the difference that I feel it will though?

I think a big part of our turnaround is what appears to be the blossoming relationship between Eze and Zaha. When Eze first came into the team Zaha didn't seem to pay a great deal of attention to him, but post-COVID Zaha seems to have acknowledged that he can help his game and on countless occasions yesterday they linked up to good effect. Added to this, Bentenke seems rejuvenated and willing to play the target man (he won nearly everything in the air yesterday). Another big plus was the fact we had the same back 4 for consecutive games, with two leaders on the pitch in Luka and Cahill. Schlupp had another good game too.

If we can keep that first XI fit and with good options on the bench then for the first time in ages maybe we can start to feel optimistic. I can't imagine many teams will want to face Eze and Wilf right now.

One of the Commentator's touched on it during the Tottenham game - Roy loves Zaha central and Eze allows him that option properly.

Last season and beginning of this season, Roy would insist on Zaha central but this meant the likes of James Macarthur on the left wing. That just isn't his position despite his work-horse determination.

It lead to a frustrated Zaha and completely ineffective left side. Now we have Eze for the left and currently Shlupp but depending on form, Townsend for the right.

Benteke has looked good for the last 2 games but I'm not going to say the 'old Benteke' is back as I'm not sure he's capable of much anymore. Even against Spurs, he done some great stuff and then missed an open header from a Corner and moments later headed a ball into the Keeper's hands when it was easier to put it either corner.

In the case he goes down hill, we have Batshuyi who I believe is the better Forward and will eventually be our undisputed Striker but having him and Ayew bench-warming isn't a bad situation for a little club like us to be in.

I still have issue with Roy's reaction tactics. To have Townsend/Ayew/Batshuyi on our bench is a massive plus but I don't see any of them getting used. You either seem to be in Roy's starting 11 or you get 5 minutes at the end. There's no inbetween.

I think this will lead to drops in form for the likes of Luka, Benteke and Kouyate but will take several more games and several more dropped points than it should to be put right.

That's very harsh of me though to ridicule Roy for something I think he might do but hasn't done yet. I'd love to be wrong and the second Luka starts spraying 40 yard passes to no one and Kouyate starts losing concentration at the back (that free-kick against Spurs in the last minute) would be lovely to see Roy immediately bring back Dann or Sakho, drop Luka and move Kouyate into the middle. Benteke goes without saying. Even if he does some nice link-up play, if he hasn't scored in 5 matches including against the Relegation fodder, swap him out for Batshuyi and see if he scores as well as 'tries hard' like Benteke.

Edited by leejaneagles (14 Dec 2020 9.59am)

Well one thing we do have now is squad depth.

RH saying he has 11 quality replacements.

Top players cannot even make the bench.

Dann, Sakho, Meyer, Kelly, Mitchell didn't make the bench yesterday.

Should make a huge difference compared to years of injury crises.

It was good to hear them question Jose, saying we had been long ball . We had been far from that yesterday, or the previous week, and it was good to watch.
Eze, is proving to be the missing link, to bring the ball forward , and on the whole distribute it accurately, and cleverly.
Not having his like has always been the problem. There was hope for Meyer, to do this, it just never really happened.
When you get a player of Eze,s ability , you can think differently tactically, and we already appear to be doing that.