The Opposition View with The Eagles Beak, Crystal Palace

Derby day is nearly upon us and as Brighton and Crystal Palace prepare to lock horns for the 143rd time, we held our customary chat with our friends at the Eagles Beak.

What we found out is that it’s been a strange old season at Selhurst Park. Palace have never before racked up as many points at this stage of a season as Roy Hodgson’s 2019-20 side currently possess – and yet some Eagles fans remain unimpressed with their campaign so far.

Part of that is down to a perceived lack of progress. Palace are in their seventh season in the Premier League and yet they still don’t seem to have any sort of plan as to how to take the step to the next level and become an established top 10 side.

Hodgson’s style of football has also drawn its critics. We saw that in December’s meeting, when the Albion completely outplayed Palace for 70 minutes but couldn’t put the game to bed. One moment of Wilfried Zaha magic followed and the spoils were shared.

What’s going to happen this time? Here’s what Jay from The Eagles Beak had to say ahead of the 143rd instalment of Brighton v Crystal Palace.

Palace’s win over Newcastle took you onto 33 points from 27 games, which is your most ever at this stage in a Premier League season. You must be happy with how the campaign is going so far?
You would guess wouldn’t you? Oddly, the fan base is not quite so chuffed about that statistic but there is no hiding from the fact that we are having one of our better seasons in the Premier League.

I think it goes back to what was a disappointing summer transfer window, followed by what has been our best first half of the season which has got us to this point, even with the dip in form.

There is frustration about the lack of plan at the club – albeit lack of plan that is made public – and there are question marks over Roy Hodgson and the style of play.

If I’m honest, it has been pretty decent and what you would probably hope – everyone wants us to emulate the likes of Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, but staying in the division for an eighth season in a row is reward enough for now. That’s not bad with a club without an apparent plan.

It looks pretty successful from where we’re sitting, more is the pity! And it does seem to have almost slipped under the radar a little. What’s it been based on?
The way Roy Hodgson sets up the team makes us difficult to beat. That does give up some flair at times and for much of the season, the game plan has seen us start games slowly and finish them high tempo.

That works when the defensive unit is solid giving us something to build on for the second half. There have been times though where that slow approach in the first half has caught us out, like Tottenham Hotspur away, but for the most part it has worked.

It explains why we are one of the teams with the least goals scored, but you have to be pleased with the points tally at this stage of the season. I say it gives up some flair, but when you have the likes of Zaha in your team along with a brilliant season from Jordan Ayew, there is plenty there to worry the opposition.

And where do you see Palace going between now and the end of the season?
The win against Newcastle United, and the manner of it, will probably gives us the impetus to get what points we need to avoid being dragged into trouble.

The poor run of late has been a concern as there is always a team that drops and gets pulled into the dogfight, but we are keeping ourselves at arms length. The odd thing is, even at this stage of the season, a run of results could see a team rise up into the top eight or higher.

Just like the Albion, you had a quiet January transfer-wise. Were you worried about not strengthening or was holding onto Wilfried Zaha the number one priority of the window?
Keeping Wilf in the summer was huge considering what happened – what a horrific 24 hours that was at the end of the window! January was not much better but looking back, the last ditch additions of Gary Cahill and James McCarthy in the summer have proved inspired.

Cahill particularly has impressed and I will never know why Chelsea ditched him and no bigger club picked him up as he still has plenty to offer. The biggest issue has been not strengthening the front line other than Ayew in the summer – what a £2.5 million signing that has been – and more importantly, not replacing Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

It has given another chance to Joel Ward who has one a great job although the fact that the Nathan Ferguson signing fell through late on remains a real disappointment.

Our meeting at Selhurst in December was the first time you’d come across a Graham Potter-managed Brighton. What did you make of the Albion that day and the game itself?
Potter has arrived with pedigree – he impressed me at Swansea City after catching the eye by doing an amazing job at Ostersunds and his sides always seem to be organised and well drilled.

You played well that day but faded as the game went on, but that is probably more the style we are playing this season whereby we deliberately finish game strongly. All in all, a draw was probably a fair result in the end – and Christ, we could not let you take six points off us again!

How did Palace react to that result? We’ve been pretty awful if we’re honest, only winning one Premier League game since
Let’s face it, we grabbed a draw in the end. You should really have finished us off, but when will opposition fans learn not to boo Wilfried Zaha? It is his fuel to his fire!

We were not great that day either but it summed up our first half of the season really where we would stay in the game knowing there is always a chance and that proved to be the case. A good point in the end to add to the tally.

Aside from keeping Zaha quiet, what is the best approach to beating this Palace side?
Considering all I have mentioned, it would have been to come at us early on – but our game plan was very different against Newcastle.

In fact, it was the opposite of what we’ve been used to with a high press and using the ball quickly. We were relentless and the only surprise was we did not score more goals.

While Zaha is always the one the opposition try and mark out of the game, it is Ayew you need to watch. I have already said he is having a great season and he has been quite underrated. He’s got good close control and is very tricky on the ball. He looks nothing like the player we had on loan last season.

Last time we spoke you fancied Norwich, Watford and Southampton to go down. Three months on and who do you think is going down now?
Well, Norwich was a decent shout back then so that has not changed. I still think Watford are in big trouble. They have caught up but they cannot afford a bad patch after making up the ground so they are always playing catch up.

Southampton have improved immensely and it seems like that thrashing at home to Leicester did them good – who knew the benefits of getting beat 9-0?!

The third one is tough and can see a number of teams in the mix including yourselves if your downward spiral fails to stop, but I sense it could be Aston Villa in the end – reaching the League Cup final could well be their downfall.

Finally, what is The Eagles Beak prediction for Brighton v Crystal Palace please?
For some reason I am not worried about this match up, and that is very rare when it comes to this fixture. I have a real feeling that Palace could get some revenge on what you did to us last season, but a point is probably more likely which we will take – especially as you really do need all three at the moment.

Thanks to Jay from The Eagles Beak for answering our questions ahead of Brighton against Crystal Palace. Don’t forget to follow them on Twitter to see the Palace view of the big game.