Last season: Palace made it to the Premier League after a Play Off Final against Watford at Wembley. Kevin Philips’s penalty in extra time was the golden goal the Eagles were looking for against the Hornets to get promoted back to the big leagues for the first time since 2005.
The Eagles finished 5th in last season’s Championship, just three points behind Brighton and Hove Albion. Ian Holloway’s team had a pretty tough season as the Glaziers won 19 out of 46 games but lost 12, in which 10 of them took place in away games which proved to be the team’s Achilles heel.
Nevertheless, Crystal Palace managed to finish in the top six spots and overcome the likes of Watford, Brighton and Leicester City thanks to an impressive season by striker Glenn Murray who scored 30 out of Palace’s 73 goals which made him last season’s top scorer in the Championship.
It is worth noting though that Palace conceded 62 goals, in which half of those were scored in Selhurst Park.
Trasfers In:
Elliot Grandin (Blackpool)
Kevin Philips (Blackpool)
Jose Campana (Sevilla)
Jerome Thomas (West Bromwich Albion)
Dwight Gayle (Peterborough United)
Stephen Dobbie (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Marouane Chamakh (Arsenal)
Transfers Out:
Andre Moritz (Bolton Wanderers)
Alex Marrow (Blackburn Rovers)
Jermaine Easter (Millwall)
Antonio Pedroza (Cruz Azul)
Aruna Dindane
Player to watch: As said above, Murray scored the majority of the Eagles’ goals that sent him to the top of the goal scoring charts. Palace though will be missing Wilfried Zaha who caught the attention of Premier League champions Manchester United and signed a contract with the Red Devils in January, but stayed on loan for the remainder of the season.
The striker will be expected to help on the scoring part a lot more this season as the Eagles will have to face the world’s strongest teams such as Man Utd, Manchester City, Chelsea etc. The 29-year-old reads the game well, has some very good positioning on the field and possesses good aim in his shot, which is the reason why he takes the team’s penalties.
It will also be interesting to see Wembley’s gold scorer Kevin Phillips in action. The 40-year-old seems to be trusted by the Palace side as he earned a new contract, after a loan deal with Blackpool, and aims to become the oldest scorer ever in the Premier League. It is worth mentioning that the veteran managed to score six goals in 14 appearances and looks to have another crack on the Premier League after signing for one more year.
It will also be interesting to see how well Marouane Chamakh performs for Palace. The former Arsenal winger will be looking to make the sort of impact he didn’t manage to make at the Emirates and what better way than keeping the Eagles in the Premier League?
Young player to watch: It would be interesting to see what Jose Campana could bring to the table. The former Spain U20 international comes with 20 appearances for Sevilla in La Liga and he could quite possibly be able to improve in the Premier League.
Prediction: No matter how well a team did in the Championship and no matter how easy it was for this club to be promoted all squads are expected to up their game in the Premier League. For example, Reading managed to finish on top of the Championship a year ago but immediately returned after a one year stay. Palace lost 12 out of 46 games last season and only managed to win seven more which is not exactly an impressive resume.
The Eagles will have to work on their shortcomings if they want to have a long stay in the Premier League. Even though they scored the second highest number of goals of the top six teams in the table they still managed to concede the highest amount.
It is hard to predict these things, but based on last year’s figures this team looks to be a possible candidate for the bottom three spots. Nevertheless, the Premier League is full of surprises every year and last season we got to see some good football by the likes of Swansea, Southampton and West Brom.
Our prediction: 20th place.
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