Timid, listless and toothless in their first seven matches; vibrant, inspired and potent against the Premier League champions. The contrast was so ridiculous, the logic so dubious, that the only reasonable explanation for Crystal Palace’s stunning 2-1 victory over Chelsea at a delirious Selhurst Park was the one offered up by Wilfried Zaha. “After you’ve lost every game you have nothing to be scared of really,” he said. “You are not scared of anything. You just play with freedom.”
Before anyone assumes otherwise, Zaha was not recommending a morale-sapping losing streak as the perfect preparation for a game against opponents of Chelsea’s calibre. Yet the forward’s comments about letting it all hang loose did offer an interesting insight into the perverse mind of the professional athlete. Everything suggested that Palace, pointless and goalless, were going to receive a fearsome beating but something about that dynamic liberated Roy Hodgson’s players. They tricked themselves into thinking they had nothing to lose, conveniently ignoring the fact a defeat would have further dented their chances of staying up, and that created an environment in which they were able to unlock their spirit and belief.
Presented with the opportunity to have a free hit, Palace floored Chelsea. They flew at the visitors from the first whistle, ended a 731-minute goal drought in the league when César Azpilicueta’s own goal sparked disbelieving celebrations and responded to Tiémoué Bakayoko’s soft equaliser with a wonderful winner from the irrepressible Zaha on the stroke of half-time. There were a few nervy moments in the second half, not least when Mamadou Sakho’s calamitous backheel almost gifted Cesc Fàbregas an equaliser in added time, and the relief at the end was immense. After all the gruel, the Palace fans gorged on this feast.
Yet while Hodgson marvelled at the raucous atmosphere after earning a first league win since he replaced Frank de Boer last month, it would be unwise for Palace to get carried away. When it was over, they were still bottom of the table. Football can be funny like that. Finding motivation against Chelsea is one thing but, as Hodgson acknowledged, Palace will encounter different problems when they visit Newcastle United on Saturday.
They need to prove that this was not a one-off, even if Hodgson believes that Palace are ahead of schedule compared with when he rescued Fulham in 2007-08.
“You preach the same things all the time,” the former England manager said. “I would like to think most times when I speak to them, most of what I’m saying is relevant, sensible, it’s got a lot of truth to it. But it’s one thing saying the words, another transforming into actions, individually, what you know needs to be done. We have talked about playing and having confidence: we’re a passing team.
“You’ve got to dare to pass, to receive it, you’ve got to look forward, not knock it back to your goalkeeper. We’re still working on that but there were a lot of positive signs.
“It took us a long while to get anything like this sort of team performance at Fulham; we didn’t do it after a month. We’d have been into two or possibly three months before we could say: ‘Yeah, this is what we want, what we’re looking for.’ This has come quicker than I expected.”
Despite the need to stay calm, there was plenty of encouragement for Hodgson. The 38-year-old Julián Speroni was assured in goal, Sakho was mostly commanding in central defence and the midfield’s industry rattled Chelsea, while Hodgson found a way to cope without any fit strikers, using the pace and unpredictability of Zaha and Andros Townsend up front.
Zaha, making his first appearance since the opening weekend, was superb, just as he was when Palace won at Stamford Bridge in April.
“Wilf Zaha is a player who doesn’t have roles,” Hodgson said. “He plays up front and moves around, a bit like Andros Townsend. That’s what he’s always done. It’s quite fortunate we were able to give them that liberty and they did ever so well taking on that responsibility, and did a great job.
“It suits him because he’s not being locked down in an area, and being allowed in areas between the full-back and centre-back; it means he’s got more space rather than sometimes being pinned down on the wing, which can happen if players play too wide.”
Whether the Townsend-Zaha improv workshop continues to flourish remains to be seen but Chelsea never got close to deciphering Hodgson’s plan. “Today’s a nice feeling because they got what they deserved and had to work very hard for it,” Hodgson said. “But then we have to do that in the next 30 games as well.”
The problem is that Palace have something to lose now: hope.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion