'Not A Bad Start By Any Means' – The Word On Palace
- Crystal Palace visit King Power Stadium to face Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday
- The Eagles defeated Leeds United 2-1 at Selhurst Park last time out
- Edmund Brack from the South London Press says this could be an exciting season for Palace
An opening day loss to current league leaders Arsenal was followed by a 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield, before a 3-1 home success over Aston Villa. Defeats by Manchester City and Chelsea, on the other hand, came during a run which also included draws with Brentford and Newcastle United, before last weekend's 2-1 win over Leeds United at Selhurst Park.
Those results leave the Eagles 15th in the Premier League on nine points ahead of visiting King Power Stadium to tackle bottom-placed Leicester City on Saturday (12:30pm BST kick-off). Speaking earlier this week, Brack outlined why optimism is high under Patrick Vieira’s management in south London.
"It’s not been a bad start by any means," he told LCFC Radio. "If you look at the eight games they’ve played this season, they’ve been competitive in most of them. They’ve had quite a tricky start to the season, playing Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea in the opening eight games.
"A hallmark of Patrick Vieira’s Palace is that you never go into the game thinking you’re not able to pick up points. They’ve got such an attacking line-up with Wilfried Zaha, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, it’s just about getting them clicking, making sure they’re consistent in front of goal.
"Zaha’s taken his consistency in front of goal to a new level. In terms of the amount of points they’ve picked up, perhaps it’s slightly disappointing. They took the lead against Liverpool, Manchester City and against Chelsea.
"They failed to see out those points through game management and maybe naivety as well. They’re still a young squad, they’re still learning that it hurts a bit more this season when they’ve got a full season in the Premier League under Patrick Vieira behind them.
"You then come up against Leeds and you’re thinking it’s an opportunity to pick up three points and move away from the bottom of the table and, although the didn’t play brilliantly, Palace managed to see it out.
"They’ve got to use that game as a building platform to show that they can drag themselves away from the bottom pack."
With such attacking quality at their disposal, Brack is confident that Palace can climb the table and turn 2022/23 into a memorable season.
"You’re going to be entertained watching Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze attacking players at full force trying to take them on," he explained.
"When you’re watching Wilfried Zaha in front of goal at the moment, it’s breath-taking to think he’s transformed himself from this winger who would beat one or two players and now he’s this clinical finisher.
"He can cut inside onto his right foot and nine times out of 10 he’s going to hit the angle just right. Joachim Andersen’s passing range is sensational. Sometimes you think he could play for any team in Europe because of how good he is at finding those diagonal passes.
"It’s a major asset to the way they build forward and they try to attack games. It’s noticeable that, without Conor Gallagher, they lack a pressing midfielder who can join the attack by winning the ball back.
"When they do have the ball, it’s Andersen either trying to play through the lines, or playing a diagonal to Zaha, and they try and break through that way."