UK Edition
Crystal Palace 0 Huddersfield 3: Premier League debutants in dreamland after Frank de Boer's side are run ragged
David Wagner, the Huddersfield manager, had rated his team the “biggest underdogs in Premier League history” on the eve of this season. Ninety minutes of football later, he will seriously struggle to find anyone who agrees.
It would be churlish to say that one resounding victory makes it worth Huddersfield’s 45-year wait for top-flight football, but this was as good a return to the elite as the club could have envisaged. In dismissing a ragged Crystal Palace, Wagner’s side were nothing like the naive newcomers lucky to be mixing it with the game’s giants. Organised, powerful and aggressive, they look both up for the fight and capable of surviving it.
“What I have seen today made me very happy,” said Wagner after two strikes by record signing Steve Mounie and an own goal from Palace’s Joel Ward had turned this into a procession not even the most optimistic Huddersfield fan could have expected. “Premier League,” they sang. “We’re having a laugh.” Welcome to the big-time.
Welcome, too, to Frank de Boer. The new Palace manager has taken over from Sam Allardyce with a dream of revolutionising their style of play. Such ambitions may need to be shelved. Passing football is not what this squad is used to, and it will clearly take time to adjust to de Boer’s methods.
“It is a very poor start,” said de Boer. “Nobody expected it. It is a very hard lesson for me, the staff and the players.”
Sporting a pair of skinny chinos and a summery blazer, De Boer at least had the look of someone ushering in the new, post-Allardyce era. As well as the outfit, there were also a couple of silky pieces of control when the ball strayed into his technical area. It was a telling contrast with his predecessor, who would have been more likely to headbutt the thing into the stands than cradle it on the top of his foot.
But while this was early evidence of how things have changed in south London, it was nothing compared with the nature of the Huddersfield goals.
The first, from a corner, would have sent Allardyce into a frenzy. Aaron Mooy’s delivery was flicked on by Chris Schindler to the back post, where his defensive partner Mathias Jorgensen turned it across goal. Palace’s Ward, desperately trying to sort out his feet, could only stab it into the net.
Barely three minutes later, it was two. Again it was hard-working Mooy crossing from the left, and this time it was Mounie who put a bullet of a header into the top corner. Now the groans really started. The home side’s attempts to pass the ball around the back had already sent a few nervous jitters through the Selhurst Park crowd, but the unrest soon reached such levels that there were ironic cheers when goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey pumped the ball downfield.
Yet Palace were still creating chances of their own. Twice Wilfried Zaha burst in behind the Huddersfield defence, only to be thwarted first by a terrific stop by Jonas Lossl and then a sliding challenge by full-back Tommy Smith.
That tackle was an embodiment of Huddersfield’s high-octane approach. Wagner’s men had treated the first whistle as if it were the bell for round one in the ring. They clattered and charged around the pitch, crashing into Palace players like dodgems.
“We were brave enough to try to press them high,” Wagner said. “Our game-plan worked.
“You have to show the fighting and the working attitude first of all, to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the opponent. We still have to improve. We are far away from our best.”
After the break, Palace’s Christian Benteke had a header well saved, while a cross from the right only just eluded Zaha. Behind all of Palace’s good work was Ruben Loftus-Cheek, making his first start since joining on loan from Chelsea. On this evidence, he is already far too good to be taking part in a likely relegation scrap.
But his team remained vulnerable. Mounie should have done better from a rebound, and then took too long when clean through on goal.
On another day, such profligacy will be punished. Here, it did not matter one jot.
Huddersfield had taken the sting out of the game long before Mounie slammed in the third goal.
By the end, the “oles” were raining down from the Huddersfield end while De Boer stood alone, arms crossed and with a frown etched on his face.