Crystal Palace 0 - Swansea 2: More misery for De Boer as Swans stuff Eagles

CRYSTAL PALACE'S latest defeat makes you wonder what Big Sam is up to.

Crystal Palace v SwanseaGETTY

Swansea celebrate Jordan Ayew's goal

Last Christmas, Allardyce ended his enforced sabbatical after being booted out of the England job to save Palace from the drop.

He’s back in retirement after walking out of Selhurst Park three months ago and insists the only role that would tempt him back into management is leading an international side.

But calling him and trying to sweet-talk him into a Messianic return to South East London wouldn’t be the daftest thing that chairman Steve Parish could do in their current predicament.

Three matches in and they are not only pointless near the bottom of the Premier League but they’ve also failed to score in the first four and a half hours of the new season.

More serious than that, the players he left behind don’t appear to have a clue how to put Frank de Boer’s ideas of how he wants the game to be played into practice!

And the fans, who revered Sam for keeping them up, don’t give a toss about his style because at least it brought them a few wins!

Swansea arrived without a single shot on target in their first 180 minutes of Premier League action against Southampton and Manchester United.

And left with two goals and three points to underline just how wretched Palace have become since the end of last season.

Both goals were catastrophic defensive mistakes by sub Martin Kelly, who didn’t come on until four minutes before half-time and had given away two eagerly taken chances within seven minutes later!

He got his feet in a tangle to gift teenage striker Tammy Abraham his first top flight goal as he poked the ball into the net from close range.

And then he was robbed by Kyle Naughton, allowing the one-time Spurs defender to slot a ball in behind the Palace backline.

Frank de BoerGETTY

Pressure is mounting on Crystal Palace manager Frank de Boer

Scott Dann didn’t help by stopping to appeal for offside, allowing Jordan Ayew a free run for another tap-in.

Confusion wasn’t only in the heart of the defence, elsewhere the ineffective Christian Benteke glared at teammate James McArthur when he virtually pinched a cross off the big striker’s head.

Palace were booed off at half-time and De Boer at the final whistle and a sign of the fans’ desperation was when they turned on referee Andre Marriner fofr tubning down unjustified penalty pleas for tackles on second half subs Chung-Yong Lee and Yohan Cabaye.

The Swans were content to sit back and wait for mistakes and while they were comfortably outshot, Lukasz Fabianski never really had a difficult save to make.

Benteke had one of those frustrating days when he can do no right, and from Palace’s best chance of another depressing afternoon glanced a close-range header criminally wide.

Eagles’ De Boer admitted that he knew exactly how Palace’s unhappy fans, who booed him and the team off the pitch, felt.

“I can understand it because they want to see points and want to see goals – I’m also frustrated!

“This is very frustrating for everybody, we wanted to get off the mark and get some points and goals on the table and we didn’t. It’s very disappointing.

“I can’t say it was because Swansea were fantastic, there were two teams that didn’t play at their best and the team who make less mistakes wins this kind of game.

“We are not in a very good situation right now and I’m very happy that the international break is there and hopefully we can turn it around in those two weeks before Burnley.”

Paul Clement, Swansea boss, said: “Although it’s very early in the season, it was an important game. Four points from the first three games and going through the EFL Cup is a reasonable start.

“I’m not so happy about the performance, in the second half we had to defend too much,”

He was also delighted that Tammy Abraham scored, admitting: “At this level there’s a lot of scrutiny and he’s new and now he’s off the mark in the Premier League, it’s good for him.

“He is a goalscorer and he’s very happy.”

Crystal Palace: Hennessey 6; Fosu-Mensah 5, Dann 5 (Kelly (41st) 4), Tomkins 6; Ward 6, McArthur 6, Milivojevic 6 (Cabaye (58th) 6), Puncheon 6, Van Aanholt 5 (Lee (46th)); Townsend 7, Benteke 5.

Swansea: Fabianski 6; Fernandez 6, Van der Hoorn 7 (Routledge (70th) 6), Mawson 6; Naughton 6 (Rangel (88th)), Carroll 6, Clucas 7, Fer 6, Olsson 6; Ayew 6, Abraham 8 (McBurnie (78th)).

Star Man: Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham tore up the Championship with 23 goals last season and he’s now got two in two for the Swans.

Ref: A.Marriner.

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