Crystal Palace Fan View: Tough New Year ahead for Eagles

After a successful run of eight games unbeaten, Crystal Palace are now about to enter a tricky run of fixtures over the New Year that will demonstrate exactly how far we’ve come under Roy Hodgson. If the last eight games went some way to deciding whether or not we’d be in with a chance to stay up, the next five games could determine how quickly we achieve that goal. A few points here and there will keep us in the running, but Crystal Palace are partial to a shock or two…

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First up is Arsenal, a side we haven’t done well against historically. We’d been without a win in 14 meetings, the only team we’d failed to beat since our return to the Premier League. Well, that was until last season…

It was a huge result for Crystal Palace (it effectively determined our safety) and it was a huge result for Arsenal too. Losing to Palace left Arsenal three points off the Europa League, seven points off the Champions League, 14 off Tottenham and an incredible 21 points off eventual winners Chelsea. They eventually scraped into the Europa League but, at the time, I thought that it could be the beginning of the end for Arsene Wenger, that his tenure would end with more of a whimper than a roar.

That turned out not to be the case but, in truth, Arsenal have been similarly vulnerable this season. Again they sit sixth, an astonishing 21 points behind league leaders Manchester City and still remain behind Tottenham who themselves haven’t had a great season. All that combines to make Arsenal a fantastic target for Crystal Palace. At home, under the lights in a packed Selhurst Park just after Christmas – you just never know…

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On the note of the league leaders, a home game against Manchester City follows the Arsenal game. Recent history doesn’t bode well, though we weren’t the first (and won’t be the last) to get demolished at the Etihad, a 5-0 loss in September was quickly forgotten. It didn’t come at a great time for us, we came into the game on the back of six straight losses and Manchester City ensured it wasn’t just them breaking records this season by making it seven from seven. This truly is a free swing.

Southampton begins to look like a winnable game after facing Arsenal and City, but I’d almost be more surprised if we beat them. We haven’t beaten Southampton at St. Mary’s since 2007 and every time I’ve been to the south coast we’ve been thoroughly outplayed – they’ve put nine past us in their last three games against us at home. However, they haven’t been without their fair share of disappointments this season, they only sit a single point above a Crystal Palace side that won none of their first seven games so this could be a game to target.

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Much like Southampton, Burnley has to go down as a ‘winnable game’ that we’d be lucky to get anything out of. As if Sean Dyche’s stock wasn’t high enough at the beginning of the season, he’s managed to raise it even further with the impressive start to the season with Burnley who are just a win of a Champions League place. On our day, I think we can beat them and the fact we’re at home plays to our slight advantage.

Then, finally it’s a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal again. If we’re going to get a result against them, I’d suggest that it will be at home as opposed to away, so this too will be a bit of a free swing for Palace. The result isn’t predetermined, but the likelihood of a win away from home isn’t huge.