Crystal Palace vs Fulham 23/24

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well!

On Saturday 24th September 2023, Crystal Palace hosted Fulham at Selhurst Park for a Premier League fixture as they looked to get back to winning ways.

Palace came into the game off the back of a tough-to-take 3-1 loss away to Aston Villa after taking the lead early in the second half.

This week’s visitors were Marco Silva’s Fulham. Their most recent game was a 1-0 win over Luton Town, though their start to the season was a rocky one losing 5-1 to Manchester City but managing to hold Arsenal to a 2-2 draw at the Emirates.

With Roy Hodgson returning from illness he was back on the touchline. The Palace manager only made one change to the line up which saw Marc Guehi return in replace of Chris Richards. Jefferson Lerma was still out with his injury so Will Hughes kept his place as Cheick Doucouré’s midfield partner.

The side’s came into the game level on points – with Palace just one position above - so it was all to play for!

In a feisty Premier League fixture between Crystal Palace and Fulham, the points were shared with neither team about to break the deadlock.

It was the visitors, Fulham, who began the game the brighter of the sides. Sam Johnstone in the Palace goal was called to action early to stop shots from Andreas Pereira, Willian, and Raúl Jiménez.

The match was feisty with the teams on the same amount of points battling hard to win the ball back and gain an advantage, something Palace did well whereas Fulham gave away countless fouls. Will Hughes was a standout player being present all over the pitch trying to win back possession for his team.

Palace’s first chance of the half came from their number 10. The magic man Ebere Eze used his trademark dancing feet to get past two defenders on the edge of the box and sent a shot goalwards, though it went just wide of the far post.

Fulham once again came out from the break full of confidence. Johnstone was forced into another early save in the second half, making a good block with his legs to prevent Willian opening the scoreline.

Much like previous games Palace grew into the game in the second half but they didn’t capitalise on the time they were in possession enough. Eze was involved in another attack this time being the creator, he played a ball in behind to Odsonne Édouard but the striker, who was one on one, couldn’t get his shot under the crossbar.

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s introduction from the bench brought some new energy to the game and Palace enjoying more of the ball. The substitute striker received a replica of Eze’s earlier ball as he drifted beyond the back line, but much like the rest of the game the chance was denied by keeper Bernd Leno.

Both side’s continued to hunt for a winner but no chances were taken, and the points were shared keeping the teams still level on points.

Another performance where Palace didn’t look great, when in possession they lost the ball too easily though you can’t fault their hunger to win it back. There were some lovely slide tackles on show especially from Will Hughes, and Ebere Eze did look dangerous when on the ball but it just wasn’t enough. The game did deserve to end in a draw and a positive is the defenders got a clean sheet, which is only their second of the season. Theres still a lot to work on, with the most important one being learning to take their chances, but hopefully when players start returning from injury they can start getting some important points.

Palace now have two matches away to Manchester United, the first being Carabao Cup and the second is Premier League. I did have tickets for Saturday’s match, but unfortunately due to train strikes I won’t be able to make it ☹ meaning my next post will be in a few weeks.

Thank you for reading.

Ellie Xx