Crystal Palace Fan View: Eagles' season-defining run between now and Christmas

It’s the second international break of the season and still Crystal Palace remain rooted to the bottom of the table, albeit with slightly more points than the last time around. Since the end of September we’ve picked up our only 4 points of the season thanks to a draw with West Ham and win against Chelsea. Leaving aside the humbling at the hands of Bristol City, there’s not much more we could have hoped or expected from that mini-run of the last four games.

However, the tempered expectations must stop now.

Read more: Eagles fight back for a point against West Ham

Read more: Back to reality after Bristol City humbling

A lot of people (myself included) has been bumbling along, taking the positives from each game as it comes, however the result may have gone. A turbulent start to the season coupled with a tricky fixture list means that approach was all well and good when playing Tottenham, or even Newcastle away, which is a tough place to go. However, good vibes and a positive mindset will not keep us in the Premier League – only points will do that.

Between the end of this international break and Christmas we’ve got 8 games, each one of which is against teams currently placed 8th or lower. In among those fixtures we’ll face 6 of the bottom 10, sides like West Brom, Stoke and a struggling Everton. By the time the leftovers are cooling on Christmas Day Crystal Palace will have played 19 games, half of the season will have passed. If we’re to avoid relegation we need to have taken a good deal more points than we’ve managed in the first 11 games.

We’re 6 points adrift of the relegation spots as things stand, but this run of games gives us as clear an opportunity as we are ever going to get to claw that back and move ourselves out of danger. Fail to take it and we don’t deserve to stay up, because it’s not just about the points (ridiculous as that may sound).

Read more: Another set-piece goal robs Eagles

Read more: Wasted chance to ruin Tottenham’s charge

If we win 3 of our next 8 games we’ll only be a few points off the safety at Christmas, but we shouldn’t be content with that. At that point we’d be far from mathematically cut adrift, but if we can’t pick up more than 9 points from the next 8 games we deserve to go down – it really is as simple as that.

Perhaps with the exception of Everton, I cannot see another side in the bottom 10 that has a fundamentally better squad than ours. Only 7 teams in the Premier League have spent more on assembling their squads than Crystal Palace, which are the current top 6 with the addition of Everton, and there is undeniable quality in there.

Now look at the manager. For all of the criticism that can be levelled at Roy Hodgson, he is a hugely experienced manager who has won titles across the world. What about us fans? Forget being “the best in the Premier League”, titles like that are largely irrelevant, we keep backing the team through thick and thin. We’ve played our part in some huge comebacks over the years and will continue to do so in the future. By and large we still remember the lean years, where we came from.

The point I’m trying to make is that the tools are there for Crystal Palace to be successful. The task in the next 8 games is to demonstrate we haven’t forgotten how to use them…