Three key factors behind Crystal Palace’s slump

Three key factors behind Crystal Palace’s slump

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Since the turn of the year, Crystal Palace have endured a difficult period in which they are yet to secure a win in the Premier League.

However, they have managed to get wins in the FA Cup, both of which came against teams in the Premier League: Stoke City and Southampton. Yet they have only picked up three points out of a possible 27 in the league, which has seen them slip from sixth to 13th.

There have been some factors behind this including their inability to score goals and the injury to key winger Yannick Bolasie, who was instrumental to much of his team’s success before picking up a thigh problem in their last win on 19 December.

Goalscoring an issue

Since the turn of the year, the Eagles have only scored four goals in the league which have come in the last four games. The issue has not necessarily been getting chances but converting them into shots on goal and thus possible goals.

In seven of the nine games since their last win, they have had three or less shots on goal and in one of those matches, against Bournemouth on Boxing Day, Palace had zero shots on goal. It was not that they had few chances in general; in fact, in the second meeting with Bournemouth, they had 14 shots but only three of those found their way on goal.

There is also the issue of who has been scoring goals for the side. The joint top scorers in the Premier League for the Eagles are Scott Dann and Yohan Cabaye with five each. Alarmingly, first-choice striker Connor Wickham has netted just one goal, the same as new recruit Emmanuel Adebayor, which points to the larger issue. If a team does not have a regular striker scoring goals, luck will eventually run out which has been shown in the last couple of months.


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Player mistakes proving costly

This is something that cost Palace in their most recent game and will cost them in the next three to come. Captain Mile Jedinak gave away a poor penalty after hauling Troy Deeney to the ground, which the Watford captain converted. A red card late, also in the Watford game, to Pape Souare for a two-footed tackle on Valon Behrami, will now leave the side without its first choice left-back who is out of the crucial clashes with Tottenham in the FA Cup and then West Brom and Sunderland in the Premier League.

In goal, Wayne Hennessey had some shaky games for the Eagles, scoring an own goal in the game against Aston Villa which ended up costing them at least a point as they were beaten 1-0. In the next game against Manchester City, he leaked a couple of soft goals that could have been saved. Nevertheless, they were completely outplayed in that game so it had less of an impact, falling 4-0. But the Eagles goalkeeper has managed to maintain his position in the team, whereas after a couple of mistakes earlier in the season, Alex McCarthy was replaced by Hennessey.

Key player injured

There has been one common factor across all nine games since the Eagles’ last win and that has been the absence of Bolasie. The Congolese winger was instrumental in so many of the goals that Palace had scored before 19 December and had scored four goals in the league so far. It is not only the work he does on the ball but the threat he gives defences.

This allows other attackers like Wilfried Zaha to get into more space with two pacey players to deal with. This has been lacking in some of Palace’s performances lately. They have been too predictable with only one outlet to go on the counter. Opponents only have one issue to deal with and when that is done, Palace attacks seem to just stop. The Londoners desperately need Bolasie to recover from injury if they want to return to the highs of earlier in the season.

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