Crystal Palace vs Leicester City 22/23

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well.

On Saturday 1st April 2023 Crystal Palace hosted Leicester City at Selhurst Park. It was a 3pm kick off and was surprisingly not that cold, hopefully the better weather is on its way!

Both teams came into the game in a relegation battle with a lot resting on this fixture. Leicester sat 17th in the table with 25 points, and Palace with just two more in 12th highlighting how tight the table is! Leicester’s most recent result was a 1-1 draw against Brentford, but prior to that had lost five of their last six games.

Palace entered the international break following a 4-1 thrashing away at Arsenal but had to adjust to their new manager …

During the international break Roy Hodgson was brought back to be the Crystal Palace manager until the end of the season in the hopes of keeping us safe in the Premier League. With many of the players already being familiar with the ex-Palace manager there were only a few who needed to learn his tactics which is a positive. Hodgson made three changes to the line-up which saw Vicente Guaita, Joachim Andersen and Ebere Eze come in to replace Joe Whitworth, James Tomkins, and Luka Milivojevic; the introduction of Eze immediately made it more of an attacking side which we love to see!

Crystal Palace get their first win of 2023, a 2-1 victory over Leicester in Roy Hodgson’s return to the South London side.

The home side started the game with great energy, playing high up the pitch and forcing the Leicester goal keeper, Daniel Iversen, to make multiple saves. They were fuelled by the constant noise echoing around Selhurst Park led by the Holmesdale.

Being given the captaincy for this match, Wilfried Zaha was the first to have a chance inside the first 30 seconds. He was spotted in the centre of the box by Odsonne Edouard but his shot was blocked by the Leicester defender.

A low driven shot by Cheik Doucouré was on target but was saved by the keeper, one of these days he will score one of them!

Leicester had a short phase where they looked good and as though they were going to score. Victor Kristiansen almost punished the Eagles for not taking their chances but his cross was denied by the inside of the far post.

After being reintroduced to the starting line-up Ebere Eze looked to be enjoying his football again, his dancing feet got him past the Leicester defence before his shot was eventually saved by the keeper.

The linkup down the left wing was outstanding with Zaha, Tyrick Mitchell and Jeffery Schlupp causing major issues for their opponents. Zaha’s shot after a driving run towards goal was once again blocked by the keeper.

After being a standout player in the opening half Wilfried Zaha pulled up while on an attack holding his groin, he looked in a lot of pain and Roy Hodgson was forced to bring Jordan Ayew on in his place. Palace fans will be hoping it’s not serious with a must win run of games coming up, his name rang around the stadium as he limped towards the tunnel.

The first half contained a total of 19 shots for the home side but they were just unable to convert them into the critical goals as they took too long on the ball allowing Leicester to reset, but it did finally give the home fans something to cheer about!

Leicester started second half brighter putting Palace under immediate pressure. Leicester’s captain James Maddison forced a good save by Vicente Guaita from a close range shot.

Rewarded for their confidence it was the away team who netted first, substitute Ricardo Pereira struck the ball from the edge of the penalty area sending it straight it out of reach of the Palace keeper putting his team 1-0 up.

They weren’t ahead for long, within four minutes Palace found the equaliser. Eze was brought down just outside the D, he along with Michael Olise stood over the ball but it was the English midfielder who took responsibility. His initial shot was blocked by the underside of the cross bar but the ball was knocked into the net off the back of the Leicester goalkeeper to make it a deserved 1-1.

Palace’s dominance continued with an abundance of chances, Eze came close to a second after getting the ball out of his feet and having a shot from outside the box, but his shot was pushed wide by the keeper.

Deep in stoppage time in possibly the last kick of the game Palace snatched the three points! Jordan Ayew did fantastically well to spot substitute Jean Philippe Mateta, his ball into him was perfectly weighted allowing the striker to take it in his stride while spinning and finally finish it past the keeper making it 2-1 sending Selhurst Park into a frenzy!

The celebrations didn’t stop for a while after as the Eagles finally got their first win of 2023 and what a deserved result it was!!

That was the best I’ve seen them play in so long, there is very little that can be faulted about how they played and they did everything they’ve lacked in previous games. The energy from the start was brilliant and frankly I was extremely surprised with the difference, all the credit has to go to Roy and hopefully he’s able to continue this form into our upcoming fixtures! Eze rightly was awarded the MOTM and he’s proved once again he has to be starting every week, the midfielder shone under Hodgson last time he was manger so hopefully this is the start of some good performance from him! Marc Guehi also had a great game dominating at the back but also providing attacking threat where possible.

They’ve taken one big step away from relegation but there’s still a lot more to do. Palace now have a good run of fixtures, where they should get a decent amount of points from, their next game is Leeds away followed by Southampton away which I will be attending so look out for that post in a few weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Ellie Xx