By CandH bloggerAllen Cummings
We’ve got an invite to the Palace this Saturday but the chances are it’s going to be anything but an easy day out in the capital.
The south Londoners are on the fringe of the relegation battle, and scrapping for every point in an effort to retain their Premier League status.
We of course are buoyed up by one of our best performances of the season – a magnificent effort which morally should have seen us take all three points from the aspiring Premier League champions.
But Crystal Palace will provide us with a very different challenge to the one Liverpool presented on Monday evening.
The Reds are a formidable goal machine, having netted 55 times in the league before they arrived at the London Stadium.
We knew they would seek to attack us at every opportunity, and consequently our game plan was geared to swift counter attacking on the break.
Palace are likely to have a very different mind-set. Their 26 league goals tally implies they’re far less adventurous. Happy to sit solid and compact at the back, making themselves difficult to break down, and looking for breaks of their own.
It will be a battle of wits between two of the Premier League’s oldest managers – Manuel Pellegrini is 65 while Roy Hodgson is 71.
Only Cardiff’s Neil Warnock splits them on age – he’s 70. Both men have a wealth of football experience, as well as formidable footballing brains.
With a 3-2 victory over Palace already under our belt, we’ll be in search of our first ‘double’ of the season. Since Palace returned to the top division in 2013, we’ve met 11 times – winning five, drawing three and losing three.
Our last three visits to Selhurst Park have brought two victories and a draw. So it’s a reasonably happy hunting ground for us.
Hopefully we won’t have picked up any injuries by 3 pm on Saturday, so Pellegrini can go with the same starting 11 as for Liverpool – even if Marko Arnautovic is fit and available.
In my opinion Chicharito had one of his best games on Monday. His work rate was excellent and he gave top defender Virgil van Dijk an uncomfortable evening.
I believe he certainly deserves another outing. Arnie chomping at the bit on the substitutes’ bench doesn’t sound a bad backup to me if required.
It’s a game we can certainly win with the right attitude and correct application.
All the players looked on it against Liverpool, even the ones who wanted out in January. It’s almost as if they’d had a meeting among themselves and told each other to pull their fingers out.
I hope we do approach it with the same hunger, everyone that performed should keep their place, hopefully Nasri will be fit, he is more important than Arnie to our success COYI !!!