Watching the game yesterday we were crying out for some attacking intent / ability from our fullbacks. The rest of the team played so well (Schlupp being the one exception as he was largely anonymous) that if we had a proper outlet at Right & Left back and a decent striker we would almost be the complete team.

Both Mitchell and Ward were guilty of being taken on too easily and also a number of misplaced forward passes but neither of them link up with the midfield and move the ball forward with any purpose. We were too narrow, it’s ok to move it through Doucouré and Lerma but we need the ability to vary our attacks and bomb down the wings as well. Mitchell seemed not to even cross the half way line yesterday and whereas Ward seems more willing to get forward his ability and speed lets him down.

Wardy is a club legend and is still a half decent ‘No-Nonsense Right Back’ with good positional awareness, a terrific attitude and as a leader he bleeds red & blue. Mitchell has just gone backwards and is a liability.

With the likes of Lewis Hall at LB and Wan-Bissaka at RB, yesterday would’ve been a walk in the park and the scoreline would’ve been far more reflective of our superiority.

Let’s not go overboard with our win. We had our strongest team possible on the pitch and could only score once against a team that would have been beaten by all the prem teams yesterday. Other than those promoted in my opinion? Corners we conceded yesterday May have resulted in goals scored with much better quality players attacking them against us. Really pleased we won but our squad is weaker than last season at the moment and we were fortunate to have drawn a poor team (presently) as our first match. Plus for me was Lerma and the work ethic of the other 10 but I’m not going overboard until we have some more incomings before the end of the window. And those incomings need to be first teamers dropping some of yesterday’s team to the bench. Still loved getting 3 points away but it was only Sheffield Utd :-)

Who would you drop from the 1st team Palace Chick? Seems like Schlupp is the weakest link up front. But the rest of the attack are playing quite well?

I'm not going overboard, but I repeat that it shouldn't be assumed that we are certs to lose to Arsenal. They were far from convincing yesterday.

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

That's the game I witnessed as well. I would add that Saliba played an absolute blinder for them if my memory is correct.

He's smarter than the government anyway. They'd be fizzing with competence if they came to the HOL for advice.