I'm with you on this Syd. We are gelling quicker than I thought would be likely. I put this down to:
1. Our CB partnership already looking virtually seamless. Both Andersen and Guehi exude calmness and authority when on the ball. They both look to see if there is space they can move forward into and if not they generally identify the appropriate pass for the situation.
2. Gallagher's forward movement and runs put pressure on the opposition and creates space for others to run into.
3. As PV noted after the Spurs game, both Ayew and Zaha are giving our full backs the support needed which enables them (especially Mitchell) to be more attack-minded.
4. The players are learning the value of pressing teams high up the pitch and are enjoying having more possession and control of the game than they've been used to.

We now have options we didn't have before. For example:
start with
- Benteke or Edouard
- Ayew or Olise
- McArthur or Hughes (or even Kouyate if Luka pins down the DM role).
And there's still Eze to come back.

Of course, as the horror injury to Elliott reminds us, one or two serious injuries could place a real dampener on things, but if can have a reasonable season injury wise then we can be optimistic about the rest of the season.

I suspect that those who had us down as favourites for relegation will already be revising their lists.

TBF not many Palace fans on here thought we were at any real risk. The consensus seemed near bottom come xmas and a surge to about 9th come May. The revision may be a much earlier surge and a higher placing.

Saturday a tough test and better indicator of progress but I can't recall the last time I have really looked forward to playing Liverpool away.

Better player than Declan Rice. Don’t tell Chelsea though.

Easy tiger we have won one game out of 4 we are not heading for Europe.

Not really. If you read my posts written over the past few months, I've been one of a reasonably small number that's been optimistic about the approach we've taken. While others were predicting so many expired contracts at once was a disaster waiting to happen, I argued that it was a smart move, giving us the opportunity to really build something coherent. While I had reservations about Vieira, I also saw the positives and didn't dismiss him out of hand. And now, I can't for the life of me see why an FA or League Cup isn't possible, or why we can't qualify for the Europa League, if not this season then in the next couple of years. West Ham are there now; have they been any better than us over the past decade? Fact is there are four or five teams in the PL that compete for the top. The rest are more or less equal. Why shouldn't we see ourselves as just as capable as anyone else? I'm not getting carried away at all. We have the best team we've had since promotion; we have a lot of young, creative talent. If we don't believe we can exceed our achievements over the past few seasons now, what'd be the point of even supporting Palace?