Set-Piece Goal Feels Like Deja-Vu For Palace

The goal that won it for Spurs came 10 minutes later on this time around but aside from the timing and opposition, Spurs’ goal left us all scratching our heads and wondering where we’d seen this before.

The warning signs were there throughout the game, with Palace looking particularly susceptible to set pieces and let’s be honest, Tottenham had enough of them. Wayne Hennessey denied Toby Alderweireld from point blank range early on in the first half after he’d wriggled free from a corner, before Wanyama nodded one just over the bar that he really should have done better with. We needed to learn our lesson.

We didn’t.

As for the goal, well it was a catalogue of errors from both the players and management. Both substitutes failed to focus on their introduction to the game with Jordan Mutch missing the first header and James Tomkins missing the second ball in what was their joint first contribution to the game. Pardew has to take a degree of responsibility – it was his decision to make two switches just before an impending set-piece and that is always a risk. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and sadly one Pardew won’t have the benefit of, but to concede after both substitutes lost their respective men and from a set-piece for a second week on the trot is disappointing.

To be fair to Tottenham, it could have been more and though I don’t think a draw was beyond us or would have been unfair, we could easily have lost by a larger margin. Spurs weren’t quite at it today and appear to still be getting back into their groove. They were uncharacteristically sloppy which, along with Cabaye’s introduction, helped fuel our second half revival and presented us with chances. Kane fired one wide which could have found the back of the net, Alderweireld should have scored as I mentioned and Janssen had the best two opportunities of the game and squandered both.

As far as our performance goes, I thought we really lacked any real creativity in the middle of the park, particularly in the first half, and that was the stem of our problems. People (and I include myself in that term) were screaming out for another striking option but on today’s performance that really doesn’t look to be the answer.

How many chances did Connor Wickham actually have today? Please put me right if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall one and even if it wasn’t zero, it certainly wasn’t many. Now he has to take some of the blame for that of course – if his movement isn’t good enough, if he doesn’t get into the box then he will struggle to get chances. There was certainly a bit of that today, he cut a lonely figure up front at times but I really don’t think that this was the sole reason for our inability to score today and Benteke’s arrival will not make the other issues simply go away. The rest of the team (and in particular the wingers) have to take a fair amount of responsibility for that.

Chung Yong Lee looked bright in spells but didn’t really penetrate enough with his passing and the two wingers were woefully inconsistent with their deliveries into the box. It’s been a long running criticism of Zaha’s that his final ball leaves something to be desired and that criticism was never more true than today while Andros Townsend was no better.

On the note of our wingers, today saw a problem develop between the two wingers, a problem which Pardew will have to resolve quickly. The issue is that both Andros and Wilfried prefer to play on the right hand side of the attack, with Townsend preferring to cut inside and Zaha more likely to beat his man on the outside. When Zaha played on the left he looked very one dimensional and was easily marshalled by Kyle Walker who read his tendency to cut inside like a book and when Townsend played on the left he had one of his strongest arrows removed from his quiver – the ability to cut inside and unleash a shot. Bakary Sako is of course an option but both Townsend and Zaha are better players outright so Pardew must devise a way to keep them both on the pitch. Our ineffectiveness out wide today was as clear as day to see and Alan Pardew must find a way of providing better service to our new man up top if we are to do better.

Today’s loss extends our run of away games without a clean sheet for another couple of weeks at least, with that run extending back to the turn of the year. However, it isn’t all doom and gloom and like always there are reasons to be optimistic. The Euro’s and injuries mean that players like MacArthur & Mandanda are still absent while Christian Benteke will join up with the squad next week. The additions this summer mean that this is now quickly becoming completely Alan Pardew’s team and we have to keep thinking big picture.

Today we played Tottenham Hostpur, one of the favourites for the title before the season and this was always going to be a tough game. New signings need time to gel with the rest of the squad and that takes valuable time and frustration on us fans’ part. Results are important of course, but like I say, we faced a team which could have won the title last season and this early in the season we can’t read too much into the results, however poor they may seem. A midweek run out in the cup could provide a great opportunity to nurse some players back to full fitness and reinstall some positivity around the place.