THE SPECIAL - Palace at home
Newcastle United v Crystal Palace, 16/Apr/25, KO 19:30, St James’ Park, Premier League.
So to the hardest home game of the week. Well it’s the only one we might not win convincingly anyway. The mood music around NUFC could not be better at present: a win takes us third and all will be right with the world again. If you still haven’t got over the absolute demolition of Newcastle’s performance against Manchester United - who could? - then I strongly advise you to revisit Sam Dalling’s match report. The man himself was on the Guardian Football Weekly to discuss it the next day. We are massive again!
So on to Palace, who prior to travelling to the Etihad, only to fall apart in the end, were on an incredible run away from home. This always seems to happen to Palace at the back end of a season. Suddenly everyone is fit, they throw together a load more wins, and everyone picks off one of their best attacking players in the summer. Their manager is a cool, calm customer who has tried his best to change Palace whilst largely keeping them the same. I’ve a certain respect for that, if only because it would be easy to keep losing two or three quality players each summer and give up. We know about selling your best players, we also tried to take Palace’s central defender in the summer
Palace like to play with pace on the break, which I thought, first half on Sunday, we looked poor against. Garnacho being removed was a massive bonus to me. He was the only player on Fernandes’ wavelength, and in Eze and Sarr, there are two big issues for us to worry about. In normal circumstances I wouldn’t be too worried about Palace; they last won up here under Grandad Roy in 2021 and were one down after two mins, but we chucked it away behind closed doors because of COVID (Steve Bruce football.. the memories). However, this is more than a potential banana skin.
They have quality players in Guéhi, Wharton and others. They are likely to cause us problems and have a chance to stick the Champions League race right back to the start for us. We need to set the tone, not allow them to settle, and properly burst their bubble. But it’s NUFC under the lights so you just don’t expect anything but a rowdy atmosphere.
Our lads are playing through muscle memory probably by now. Tonali was again incredible on Sunday, but Tino Livramento also had a second half performance that had me purring. There will be tough challenges ahead, well tougher than Sunday and we need players like Harvey Barnes and Jacob Murphy to be up for these games as much as playing the so called ‘bigger’ teams. Alex Isak is in a weird run at the moment, we have scored seven in our last two and he has none of them. Be great to get him back up and running, though a sign of a good side is winning even when their own best players don’t play well.
There has been a lot written, as well as a lot of statistics, about how likely teams are to finish in certain positions. We have momentum and are able now to concentrate on seven games only as if they were all cup finals. My view is that with us on 56 points, another 12 will be enough to guarantee top five and Champions League football, so important for keeping and attracting top players. We have Palace, Ipswich, Chelsea and Everton at home, but we can’t only rely on those games so we need to put in at least one top-level Eddie’s Mags performance away. However, needing nine points from the last six sounds a lot better.
Would be unfair of me to finish this week without a special mention for King Edward of Tyneside. I know there were a lot of rumours flying around last week towards the back end but I am delighted that he is apparently recovering and getting good quality medical treatment. I am sure he will have sent detailed notes to messrs Tindall and Jones to ensure that the side is set up in the way he wants for both this game and Saturday. As I write this, PSG are doing their best to throw it away versus Villa. Hopefully like Liverpool this result does some damage to morale.
Into these United!
Stephen Ord @smord84
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Agree with all of that. I've been saying for the last three weeks in different places that 68 points is the target for 5 clubs for 3 places. Get this one and we're in pole position. Even if we lose its not all lost.
At least Eddie has an illness which is treatable. I was concerned it was a heart issue given the levels of stress any football manager gets exposed to. I hope he takes his time and gets fully better before starting again.
It's a big game again, they all are, when chasing down success. Exciting times. Good analysis, Ordy.