The Palace Fan

I can't remember the last time we had a fire drill evacuation like that. Losses to Everton, Luton and Bournemouth. The board are getting what they say.

I think we need four points over the next three games just to feel that everything will still be ok. The results against Everton and Luton, at a time in the season when they're not desperate for points, gives off real 2016/17 vibes and is a cause for concern. It's not going to be easy. Eze out for approximately three weeks Doucoure could miss the rest of the season, Mateta is still in the 25 man squad etc but Roy tends to get 100% out of these players in these type of situations.

I was joking yesterday that they've probably already called Zaslav and told him there's an opening for 'One Bill Phil on Wednesday Night Raw' next year and then a couple of those shitty news sites started reporting the same thing . I laughed at the reports that WWE saw Tony Khan's tweets as a 'declaration of war' but if that happens then maybe they did.

Philogene is having some season. I winced at the price but he's achieving Jarrod Bowen status amongst those supporters in the first half of the season.

Context is key. We had just failed to qualify for USA '94, some of the friendlies were embarrassing, Venerbles was getting stick for having favourites and ignoring players in form (Ferdinand, Le Tissier etc), and the media were absolutely after those players for the Dentist Chair incident in Hong Kong. Terry Venerbles galvanised that squad, drifted away from the 4-4-2 that was synonymous with club football and had Gazza connected a little more in the last five minutes, we would have won the whole thing.

The Athletic are reporting its season over for Doucoure. Eze out for a month too. On September 1st it was clear we were three attacking players light to challenge for the top half. Going in to January it looks like we're now six players away from having an adequate squad. A Ward replacement, any cover for Mitchell, better cover for Doucoure, a wide right midfielder, a Zaha replacement and a Benteke replacement. Its amazing given the radical surgery we had to undergo in the Summer 2021, we're sleepwalking in to a similar scenario again by not addressing clear issues summer upon summer.

I guess they are short of bang average inconsistent wide players who you don’t really know where they play.

This stretch of fixtures from now until Gameweek 25 is pretty difficult and going in to it in cold form is a concern. Especially given its Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday season. Thankfully Leeds are soon entering a difficult, albeit a smaller, run of fixtures.

That Matt Jackson victory lap in Chicago sure aged well.

That sounds quite similar to Edouard so I can see why our board kept their powder dry. May be a weird situatuon for Leicester where he may be more useful for them next season as opposed to this one, just based on placement and circumstance. Vardy getting two today at least bodes well for you lot in Janaury. Fixture congestion slows down whilst AFCON is on. If he hits form after his inevitable boxing day suspension that will be massive.

I should be fuming that we've dropped points to Luton, but if they stay up over the rest of the diatribe down there by three points it's a small price to pay. They symbolise everything we were ten years ago. I've seen this with us enough times to realise this will be a rocket up the backside to make us focus on the more difficult fixtures coming up. When we lost 4-0 to Sunderland in 2017 I accepted relegation. Then we took points off teams we never should have done for the next five games. Its just the good and bad of supporting Palace under this ownership.