Is he a Catholic?

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

I too will be surprised. We were pretty poor against Leicester (with Gallagher) and duly lost, and I expect a similar result away to Newcastle. I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm right, that would mean 13 points from 6 games to hit 50 points. Unlikely.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

agree with OP - it's fine to set up defensive, but when we did get the ball in an advanced area at times there was a real lack of conviction or support going forward - like we actually wanted to give them the ball back. We missed Gallagher so much - I think we were found out to a degree. The plan was to be more direct, but we could not put together any good link play, it was like Coppell was the manager the way we attacked.

Been off for a week, so catching up - but looking through this thread has surprised me somewhat.

Saw the game on tv, and surprised that most of you think that PV made errors, or was at fault for anything...

Chelsea's form has picked up recently, and we were without CG, and Olise - who has just come back From injury, has played 0 minutes since, so was never going to start. I was expecting Chelsea simply to have too much for us, and so it proved - but thought we gave a good account of ourselves. for me it Was a lesson in taking chances. We gave them little, they scored with one well hit shot - which would have been saved but for a deflection, and one good goal - where Mounts excellent first touch out him through. (similar to that CG goal recently)

I thought Ward starting was odd, but understandable given that he's only been out through Injury, and is PVs choice when a solid defence is required. And I was encouraged by the inclusion of Eze (although I thought he was pretty ineffectual all night, rarely passing the ball forwards and slowing down the play).

Both teams remained solid in the first half, with midfields generally cancelling each other out, but Were unlucky not to go in at half time ahead after we hit the post.

The Ayew sub I found the Most bizzare, taking off Mateta so early. It did mean Eze was moved a little more centrally, which I think suited him more.. not that he did much. - Chelsea marked him out of the Game A little too easily. He looks like a player who needs some confidence to turn and attack and not quite on the same wavelengh as his teammates.

When Chelsea scored, PV reacted quickly with 2 attacking subs, and we immediately looked more threatening. would RH had done that? fair play to PV, he rolled the dice.. we needed a goal. Shame Mateta had gone off earlier.

All in all, It went as I expected. We had our 2 MVP's out, and Eze still finding his feet after injury. In spite of this we were competitive and made a few chances (would have liked to have created more.. think this can be Attributed to Eze's woes mentioned earlier) as soon as Olise came on we looked more dangerous.

I think PV saw this, and put out a team accordingly, and but for those two goals, and a couple of misses from our Players it could have been a different result, against a very good team.

Edited by CrazyBadger (19 Apr 2022 3.56pm)

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

Totally agree we have been so much better with Clyne and to play Ward as a wing back was the most peculiar selection of the lot in my book.
But as you say it ain’t all doom and gloom - as the fog of despair and disappointment clears we can see that we are heading in the right direction. I feel that with those remaining older pros due to be upgraded in the summer I have a growing belief that we are only 4 really decent signings away from being a very good team - and if we can keep the group together for a couple of seasons we’ll be back under the Wembley arch before you know it!

We go again. COYP!

I think I'm the only one who thought PV did a great job on Sunday. Chelsea had practically no chances the entire first half. Kouyate had a half chance, that if it had gone in, totally changes the game.

At half-time, we had played as well as or better than Chelsea. The second half was more of the same, until Mitchell's error, then two very fortunate deflections giving Chelsea that goal.

After that, there were only about 20 minutes left, and we hadn't been generating much offense, so PV threw caution to the wind, putting on more attacking players. It didn't work, and we lose 2-0. I can live with that.

I thought we looked like we belonged on the pitch with one of the top sides in the world for most of the match. Our effort was excellent, our defending was excellent. There wasn't one stretch in the first 60 minutes where they dominated play, or created great chances.

Our ability to press them was pretty much out the window with Gallagher not playing. And Olise wasn't able to go the full 90. Given that, I think PV's plan was good, and gave us a shot to win.

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