These stats are of little relevance whilst Zaha is injured. Of far more relevance are (sadly) our stats when Zaha hasn't played, namely 18 defeats in the last 20 Zahaless matches and 16 failures to score in those 20 games. Needless to say we have lost the four games and scored none when he has been absent this season (Burnley home and away, Newcastle home and Leeds away, all games we should have been capable of getting points from).

The question is when does Zaha return? If his injury keeps him out for most of our remaining games than we will be in deep trouble unless we can change our mentality and form without our talisman. The only likely way that might happen is if Hodgson
a) starts with Mateta and Mateta starts scoring goals and
b) Hodgson opens his eyes and accepts that his favoured 4-4-2 set-up isn't working and won't work with the players he currently has available.

The gutless performances in the last two games do not bode well otherwise.

I agree that the key to this is Wilf. If we carry on as we are and Wilf 's injury keeps him out then we will get relegated. We surely cannot stay up scoring zero.

We need to find a way, a formula, tactics, to at least compete without Wilf in the team or he has to return whilst we have some winnable games left if we are to gain another point.

I do hope your correct, however without Wilf our form speaks for itself and we have a very difficult run in so if we are to stay up then we have to win the games coming up without Wilf so I am seriously concerned that survival is not certain by any means!

We Palace fans all know what an amazing player Wilf is.. on his day totally unplayable and has to be constantly fouled to stop him playing.. this unfortunate stat that keeps being mentioned of not being able to win without him in the team, losing 18 out of 20 without him, makes horrendous reading for us Eagle fans.. but it would also be interesting to see how many we don't win/lose when he is playing too.. three of our worst losing results this season with Wilf playing were Chelsea 4-0, Liverpool (h) 7-0 and Villa 3-0.. the point I'm trying to make is that we are not a one man team but one man, Wilf, can make a difference and would do to any team. There are 10 other professionals on the pitch that can play too, many of them being internationals, and need to start pulling their weight and earning their money and should be able to put in a high level performance in most, if not all, games with or without Wilf playing. I feel, just a personal opinion, that one of the biggest problems that we have is the negative way we seem to approach most games because of the tactics, or lack of, that we use. If we continue to play like we have in many games this season, defensively very poor(2nd worst in the division)and almost non existent in attack in some games, Brighton (h), Chelsea come to mind and I'm sure there's others, I can't see us avoiding relegation. We do have some very good players so why not use them to their strengths and not the negative way that Roy chooses to use them. Benteke and Batshuyai have had loads of critisism for not scoring more regular, and maybe rightly so at times, but do they get a good supply/service from the rest of the team?.. personally I don't think so, so what chance has Mateta got.. I will always support this special club of ours, have done since '68, but I'm totally disillusioned with this team, its negativity and at times lack of effort..

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This operation, will make the 'Charge Of The Light Brigade' seem like a simple military exercise.

We're only as good as our next game.