By Hugh Southon
Nobody likes excuses but sometimes they are justified and pleading “tired legs” on yesterday’s Palace performance seems reasonable to me.
We should perhaps do well to remember too that we have now taken four points from the six available against a team which has beaten Manchester City and Wolves away whilst drawing at Old Trafford.
Manuel Pellegrini was – on this occasion – more or less forced to play the same team as had run their legs of against Liverpool on Monday night with the exception of Arnie.
He has been in a situation for some time where he has been juggling the same 15 and perhaps the injury to Samir Nasri has proved more critical than many would have imagined.
In reality it has meant that we have no seriously creative force in midfield and it’s probably worth remembering the manager’s team planning was badly hit in the first place by the Lanzini injury.
That is all about to change with both players looking ready to return against Fulham next Friday night although Manu will need more than a bit of time to get back to his best.
Given the injuries, it’s pretty impressive in my opinion that we are in 10th place and still with a chance of reaching the top seven when in previous seasons such an injury plight would have seen us dicing with relegation.
So yes, disappointed by yesterday’s second half in a big way but Palace are no mugs and there were reasons for it.
Lord knows how we survived in the old days with the same eleven players playing week in week out. Twice a week, Wednesday Saturday Wednesday Saturday during our spells in the lower division. It wasn’t like we gradually tired as the game went on in that game though, Crystal Palace just came out for the second half bang up for it as a team. So was we tired? Or was it the old complacency settling in again having been comfortably controlling the game at one nil up? Perhaps we thought we had this one in the bag. Crystal Palace missed so many golden opportunities to score in that second half it was frightening. Unbelievable really that we managed to come away with a point. So no point in making excuses, let’s just concede we got lucky and move on. We are well placed in the league considering our form is generally up and down like a yo yo. We are a midtable outfit and have been for years. I don’t see that changing any time soon. There’s always next year though.
I find myself agreeing with both Hugh and Clive . Although there are some very tired legs out there ( undoubtedly true ) we did all the same fail to turn up somewhat in second half .
But given the obvious tiredness and attitude problems it has created ( Anautovic not withstanding) we should be more or less content with the point against Palace who are a very capable side with a stronger approach and mentality than us . As was pointed out by Clive in different words , if this was happening to West Ham just a while back we would be in severe danger of relegation . It’s a disappointment after all the expectations to be sure but let’s not forget our injury plight . If we can just sort out the mentality problem for the next dozen games this season might just see us a lot happier at the end and with some real optimism for next season .
Without the injuries we’ve had, the attitude for every game would have to be spot on or any player could be rotated. When there is nobody to adequately replace you it can let complacency slip in. Shouldn’t happen but it does.