Despite having had a season full of ups and downs, Crystal Palace ‘s 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United on Monday means they have now gone five consecutive games unbeaten.
An even more significant achievement when you look at the opponents they have faced in recent matches: all of them are teams that are higher up the table than ‘The Eagles’, including top teams such as Liverpool, Newcastle and the aforementioned Manchester United.
Moreover, in these matches, the South Londoners have been far superior to their opponents. In fact, the figures prove it: 13 goals scored and only three conceded, which has allowed them to counteract the negative goal average they had generated during the rest of the season and thus equalise it with the teams in their zone in the classification.
With this positive streak in which they have obtained twelve points out of a possible fifteen, Oliver Glasner’s boys have sealed their permanence and have settled in a quiet area of the table in which they are no longer in any kind of danger in the two remaining rounds to finish this Premier League 2023-24.
The keys of the comeback of Crystal Palace in the final stretch of the season:
One of the main architects of the team’s late-season turnaround has been coach Oliver Glasner. The Austrian arrived at Selhurst Park in February, replacing the legendary Roy Hogdson, to steer the team away from the relegation places as ‘The Eagles’ struggled to find their feet and were hovering near the bottom of the table at the time.
Glasner arrived at the English club creating high expectations among the fans due to his good performance in his previous spell in Germany, where he managed to qualify Wolfsburg for the Champions League (2020-21) and the following year, he managed to lift the UEFA Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, beating FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals. Thus, the results he has achieved with ‘The Eagles’ show that the new coach has fulfilled what was expected of him.
The Salzburg native is considered by English fans to be a great tactician who has been able to make the most of his players’ potential. In particular, he has been able to get the most out of a player who has been key in the final stretch of the season. This is none other than Jean-Philippe Mateta.
The French striker seems to have woken up with the arrival of the new coach. With him on the bench, he has scored eight goals, scoring a brace on a couple of occasions, almost three times as many goals as he had scored before Glasner’s arrival (three goals).
Apart from the rebirth of this player, the new coach has been able to strengthen the lethal weapons already available to the Eagles, such as Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Tyrick Mitchell.
Olise and Eze are proving to be the two wings that support the Crystal Palace eagle, pushing it higher and higher. Both players are crucial in the three-quarter area in the opposition half. They are responsible for the majority of the Glazier’s chances and the set-piece opportunities are all theirs, while Mitchell is proving to be a very reliable centre-back, even being called up to the England national team.
Although the real test will come next season when Glasner will be starting completely from scratch, this has been a very good start to the Austrian’s Premier League career.
Time will tell whether ‘The Eagles’ will continue to fly high or crash crash miserably to the ground.
Translated by Marcos Rodríguez.
Main image: @CPFC.
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