Crystal Palace Fan View: Eagles deserved defeat after pressing self-destruct button

Crystal Palace once again failed to pick up a point in a Premier League game, extending the winless run that started at the beginning of December to one more game.

Even worse, our failure to pick up anything at home to Everton combined with Swansea’s surprise win at Anfield sees us slip into the relegation zone for the first time this season.

Positive performances across the field…

I’ll start with the positives, and nobody epitomised a good performance like Wayne Hennessey did yesterday. Before the game I questioned whether he deserved to start after his lacklustre performances so far this season however yesterday he took the first step towards addressing those fears.

Saves from Kevin Mirallas, Funes Mori and Ross Barkley, to name just a few, kept us in the game early on and if we’d ended up keeping a clean sheet he would have been rightly lauded for his performance. The old adage “one good performance doesn’t maketh the goalkeeper” is certainly true though, he has to replicate yesterday’s performance more often and, crucially, play a big part in keeping more clean sheets.

James McArthur and Yohan Cabaye deserve credit for their battling performance in the middle of the park. McArthur is a freak of nature, the amount of distance he covers with his hounding, dogged displays is beggars belief and if anyone truly displays the kind of commitment and spirit that (if we do it) will keep us up this season, it is him. Yohan Cabaye showed similar attributes yesterday in his display and in general we saw a much more committed and determined display across the board.

It was the first taste of Premier League action for Loic Remy and Jeffery Schlupp and both had solid debuts. Remy only lasted an hour but his movement and pace showed signs of promise when combined with Benteke’s more static approach. There were glimpses certainly of a partnership we have all been dreaming about since the start of the season.

Palace deserved to concede after failing to adapt

The most significant talking point to come out of the game came just moments before Everton scored and it involved Jeffery Schlupp. Palace fans were outraged that Everton failed to put the ball out of play and the referee didn’t stop the play. By contrast, I’m outraged that we failed to adjust for Schlupp’s absence.

In a game that we otherwise managed fairly well, those two or three minutes were just a catalogue of errors from Palace’s point of view. Initially we failed to cover for Schlupp’s absence, allowing Coleman to get in a cross after two Palace players didn’t really know whether to get tight to him or not.

Then came a poor clearance which fell straight to the impressive Davies who found the gap which had moments earlier been shown up. Coleman did the rest and we lose the game, all that effort down the pan by failing to spot the danger and cover for a player off the pitch.

Everton didn’t have to kick the ball out, the referee didn’t have to stop the play but we did had to cover for Schlupp’s absence. We didn’t, and can have only ourselves to blame.

New system gives us options

Yesterday saw a system employed that we’ve never really seen before, the 3-5-2 (or 5-3-2) system. It’s a system which may suit our needs for the next month or so as a number of factors are in play. The first of those is Jeffery Schlupp. In signing Schlupp we have acquired a naturally left footed player who Allardyce feels confident to start (as opposed to Zeki Fryers). This system relies on the width being provided by the wing backs and as such, Martin Kelly playing would struggle to provide the necessary width on his weaker side to really make the system work. Schlupp can and did, making this system a reasonable option.

Another of these factors is Loic Remy’s availability. Until now we have been operating with one main striker with Fraizer Campbell available but firmly playing second fiddle to Benteke. Remy’s return to fitness has given us an alternative as opposed to a backup and this new system allows him to be incorporated into the starting line-up in a way he couldn’t have been playing 4-5-1.

The final factor is Wilfried Zaha’s absence. Townsend’s Palace career has been stuttering so far and, unlike Wilfried, hasn’t been playing well enough to force us to play a system which maximises his opportunities. There isn’t really anywhere for Townsend to play in this new system, which is fine because he has been in and out of the team anyway. It’ll be interesting to see how long this system lasts once Zaha returns though.