{"id":10513,"date":"2024-12-17T14:11:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T14:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10513"},"modified":"2024-12-19T01:51:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T01:51:09","slug":"the-palace-poser-are-we-in-it-to-win-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=10513","title":{"rendered":"The Palace Poser: Are We In It To Win It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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And so to the Stadium of Stone for a quarter-final encounter with Crystal Palace in the current iteration of the Milk\/Littlewoods\/Rumbelows\/Coca-Cola\/Worthington\/Carling\/Capital One\/Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A league cup tie with Palace with a league game to come a few days later? It must be 1970. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 28th that year, we drew 0-0 at Selhurst Park in the Round of Sixteen in what was our fourth-ever game against Palace (they had only been promoted to the old First Division for the first time the previous season and the only other fixture had been an FA Cup tie in 1934). However, we lost the replay 2-0 at Highbury on November 9th, a shock made the worse as it was our first home defeat in 22 games. Five days later, we drew 1-1 in the league at Highbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable ‘holics may have been at some or all of those games more than half a century ago. By most accounts, the League Cup loss was the most frustrating because we dominated the game but could not find a goal (does this sound familiar?). Palace had a half-chance and a dodgy penalty. They scored both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerry Queen, a Glaswegian of modest playing achievement in his homeland and England but who subsequently found success coaching in the southern United States, converted the half chance, a tap-in after Bob Wilson had made a fine save from Jim Scott. The penalty came after Queen clattered Wilson for the nth time. There were some handbags involving John Roberts, for which referee Norman Burtenshaw chose to penalise the Welshman and ignore the initial foul on Wilson (plus \u00e7a change!). Bobby Tambling stuck home the spot kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Arsenal ran themselves to the edge of exhaustion in a bid to break down the Palace defence,’ wrote Norman Giller in the Daily Express. ‘But their scoring chances disappeared in a maze of their own making.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The league game was wash, rinse, repeat. Raddy scored after 16 minutes. Palace got a smash-and-grab equaliser almost immediately. They then held out for the draw despite our constant pressure. ‘It wasn’t Arsenal’s day,’ wrote Danny Blanchflower in the Sunday Express uncharacteristically prosaically. This is all starting to sound horribly contemporary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days, Palace wore claret shirts with thin, blue vertical stripes and white shorts and were nicknamed ‘The Glaziers’. The following season, they switched to an Ajax-like all-white strip with a broad stripe down the middle of the shirt, but in Palace’s case, the stripe was half blue and half red. Since you ask, Ajax’s design came about when the club was first promoted to the Dutch top flight. The league had a rule that no two clubs could have the same strip, so Ajax had to find an alternative to their red and white stripes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace’s sartorial Dutch dalliance would be short-lived. With the arrival of the colourful, fedora-wearing, cigar-chomping Big Mal Allison as manager in 1973, they changed strip again to red and blue stripes with blue shorts. They also became The Eagles (not the Hotel California kind, obviously).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Palace’s twelfth consecutive season in the Premier League, never finishing higher than tenth (last season and 2014-15) or lower than 15th (2015-16), coincidentally the position they now occupy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver Glasner replaced Woy in the Palace dugout in February. Hodgson had been drafted in for a second stint in charge after Palace sacked our very own Paddy Vieira, who had succeeded Woy at the end of his first stint. The Austrian arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt (also nicknamed the Eagles, as it happens) and justified his reputation for revitalising struggling sides. Six wins in their final seven games took Palace to their best-ever Premier League points haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This season has been more arduous going. Glasner’s switch to a back three from Hodgson’s favoured back four has been hampered by injuries and a disciplinary freezing out of Capitola Rob, who now trains with the Under-21s. However, he might struggle to break into a back line of Marc Guehi, Trevor Chalobah and Maxence Lacroix, a summer arrival from Wolfsburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They line up in front of Dean Henderson, preferred to another of our old boys, Matt Turner. Starlet DM Adam Wharton may be back after a groin problem, while Cheick Doucoure has also been working his way back from injury. Tyrick Mitchell, Jefferson Lerma, Will Hughes and Colombian international Daniel Munoz have been manning the midfield in their absence. However, Munoz misses this match because of suspension. Nathaniel Clyne or Jeffrey Schlupp will replace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stardust in Glasner’s preferred  3-4-2-1 is in attack: Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Phiippe Mateta. The late blossoming Frenchman is the top scorer this season with four, despite platooning with another of our old boys, Eddie Nketiah, who is also working his way back from injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I expect Glasner to play as strong a side as he has available. The League Cup may be Palace’s best chance of silverware this season. They have beaten Norwich, QPR and Villa so far. In the last round at Villa Park, Glasner fielded a full-strength team against a Villa side that was also pretty near full-strength. Goals from Eze and Japanese international midfielder Daichi Kamada, who had played for Glasner at Frankfurt, put Palace into the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2011-12 season. Although Villa dominated possession, Palace comfortably contained them, wherein lies a warning for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palace’s weekend victory at Brighton means they have lost only once in their past eight league matches. They are starting to climb clear of the relegation zone as their injury list clears. That will boost their confidence for Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta has a selection dilemma. He needs to revitalise a team that spent 90 minutes on Saturday banging its head against the brick wall that is a Sean Dyche defence. Given the attacking talent at their disposal, I don’t expect Palace to be as defensively obdurate, but I do expect them to play a counter-attacking game. At the same time, Arteta needs to rest and rotate ahead of the helter-skelter of league fixtures over the holiday period, when we cannot afford to drop more points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write this before getting Arteta’s pre-match injury update, but I assume neither Zinchenko nor Calafirori will be fit enough to start. Regardless of whether Rice is or not, resting him seems essential. We won’t win anything if he cannot last more than 60 minutes in games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the past is prologue, Arteta will load the team with the lesser played and stack the bench with thoroughbreds in case the cavalry is needed late on. Nonetheless, Palace’s attacking prowess probably predicates a strong defence. Neither Saliba nor Gabriel will be rested unless injury necessitates it. Kiwior would then come in. Of the youngsters, Josh Nichols, Josh Robinson, Ayden Heaven and Zane Monlouis played for the U-21s in Sunderland on Monday, suggesting they won’t be involved against Palace. Setford, who will be needed as Neto is cup-tied, didn’t travel north. Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel\/Kiwior, MLS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nwaneri, Jorghino, Merino<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sterling, Jesus, Trossard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other circumstances, playing a predominantly second string and bowing out of the competition ahead of a busy holiday run of games would not be the worst outcome. That said, we could use a win. No team wants to get into a rut of not winning. Plus, a win brings a semi-final, and the opportunity for silverware draws closer. Winning something, even the League Cup, would do this team a power of good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d be happy to scrape through 2-1. Unlike in 1970, there will be no replay; if the scores are level after 90 minutes, it will be straight to penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, ‘holics, near and far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so to the Stadium of Stone for a quarter-final encounter with Crystal Palace in the current iteration of the Milk\/Littlewoods\/Rumbelows\/Coca-Cola\/Worthington\/Carling\/Capital One\/Carabao Cup. A league cup tie with Palace with a league game to come a few days later? It must be 1970.  On October 28th that year, we drew 0-0 at Selhurst Park in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10517,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513\/revisions\/10517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}