Din
Well-Known Member
Can't really have too many complaints about that, a really hard-fought point. It's a shame obviously having taken the lead we couldn't hold onto it but we went in front so early that it was always going to be a really tough ask to see out a 1-0 from there.
Fact is as well I thought up until the hour mark where Palace did score we were doing a brilliant job at repelling them. We won every header into our box and were generally doing really well and not letting Palace have anything in and around our box. Then Zaha comes up with a 30 yard screamer that nobody can do anything about. You could maybe argue that Placheta should be tighter to him but even then it's probably a bit harsh. That's the Premier League I guess. It's frustrating because if after an hour plus of wearing us down and constant pressure Palace eventually manage to make the break-through you say fair enough we just couldn't hold on, but it was a goal out of absolutely nothing that probably 99 times out of 100 either goes miles over or straight into Gunn's hands, at a point in the game where we were doing a very competent job of defending our goal, and we were just about to make a sub as well which hopefully would've given us even more control.
Got to give credit to Palace though, I thought they were excellent. A lot of teams even when 1-0 down can't maintain that sort of pressure without the opposition getting any respite for as long as they did, they literally had us completely penned in, and even when we tried to get out or clear the ball their two centre backs Guehi and Andersen were so good at mopping things up and then instantly putting us on the back foot again. Zaha and Olise too are just so dangerous. I thought Aarons overall was excellent against Zaha but even then he pops up and scores an outrageous goal. Olise's left foot is absolutely beautiful too. Frustrating as it was a game we really could've done with winning, but I think a few months ago after the game going level we go on to lose that game, so I think we actually did well to hold onto a point, albeit we got a huge slice of luck with Zaha taking the worst penalty I've seen live in my entire life
We put in a really good performance first half, particularly the first 20/25 minutes. McLean and Lees-Melou were running the show in midfield, Idah was really strong up front and Rashica was just a constant threat. He had Joel Ward on toast in the first half. Second half though Palace stepped it up and McLean and Pierre started getting overrun in midfield. If we could've just stayed at 1-0 until the point Gilmour came on and we get an extra man if midfield then who knows what happens. Great finish from Pukki for the first goal as well, pleasing to see him end his drought, though I do really wish he'd just hit that other chance first time. Imagine if we'd have gone into half-time 2-0 up, would've been huge.
I know he gave away the penalty but man of the match for me could only be Aarons. He won every individual battle in the first half against Zaha and was just brilliant. Rashica a close 2nd with maybe Gunn in 3rd? Definitely his best game since he re-signed made a couple of very good saves. I thought overall everyone had a good game except for maybe Placheta, who looked a bit out of his depth. It is quite worrying that if any of our front 4 get injured, and obviously Sargent is out at the moment, I don't think the options we have in reserve are Premier League quality. If Rashica gets injured we're in big trouble. But yeah all in all a decent result and performance, I know we've got a couple of tricky games coming up but for now we're only 1 point off Newcastle and 2 off Everton (who looked complete shit on Tuesday) with plenty of time to drag some others into the fight too!
Fact is as well I thought up until the hour mark where Palace did score we were doing a brilliant job at repelling them. We won every header into our box and were generally doing really well and not letting Palace have anything in and around our box. Then Zaha comes up with a 30 yard screamer that nobody can do anything about. You could maybe argue that Placheta should be tighter to him but even then it's probably a bit harsh. That's the Premier League I guess. It's frustrating because if after an hour plus of wearing us down and constant pressure Palace eventually manage to make the break-through you say fair enough we just couldn't hold on, but it was a goal out of absolutely nothing that probably 99 times out of 100 either goes miles over or straight into Gunn's hands, at a point in the game where we were doing a very competent job of defending our goal, and we were just about to make a sub as well which hopefully would've given us even more control.
Got to give credit to Palace though, I thought they were excellent. A lot of teams even when 1-0 down can't maintain that sort of pressure without the opposition getting any respite for as long as they did, they literally had us completely penned in, and even when we tried to get out or clear the ball their two centre backs Guehi and Andersen were so good at mopping things up and then instantly putting us on the back foot again. Zaha and Olise too are just so dangerous. I thought Aarons overall was excellent against Zaha but even then he pops up and scores an outrageous goal. Olise's left foot is absolutely beautiful too. Frustrating as it was a game we really could've done with winning, but I think a few months ago after the game going level we go on to lose that game, so I think we actually did well to hold onto a point, albeit we got a huge slice of luck with Zaha taking the worst penalty I've seen live in my entire life
We put in a really good performance first half, particularly the first 20/25 minutes. McLean and Lees-Melou were running the show in midfield, Idah was really strong up front and Rashica was just a constant threat. He had Joel Ward on toast in the first half. Second half though Palace stepped it up and McLean and Pierre started getting overrun in midfield. If we could've just stayed at 1-0 until the point Gilmour came on and we get an extra man if midfield then who knows what happens. Great finish from Pukki for the first goal as well, pleasing to see him end his drought, though I do really wish he'd just hit that other chance first time. Imagine if we'd have gone into half-time 2-0 up, would've been huge.
I know he gave away the penalty but man of the match for me could only be Aarons. He won every individual battle in the first half against Zaha and was just brilliant. Rashica a close 2nd with maybe Gunn in 3rd? Definitely his best game since he re-signed made a couple of very good saves. I thought overall everyone had a good game except for maybe Placheta, who looked a bit out of his depth. It is quite worrying that if any of our front 4 get injured, and obviously Sargent is out at the moment, I don't think the options we have in reserve are Premier League quality. If Rashica gets injured we're in big trouble. But yeah all in all a decent result and performance, I know we've got a couple of tricky games coming up but for now we're only 1 point off Newcastle and 2 off Everton (who looked complete shit on Tuesday) with plenty of time to drag some others into the fight too!
