By Bulldog Drummond
We are told by the BBC that Crystal Palace have never lost their final home league game in their previous 11 Premier League campaigns (W8, D3). Their last such defeat was in 1980-81.
But as so often happens such statistics hide a bit of fun – as with last season for example: here is Palace’s run in.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | |
| 24 Jun 2020 | Liverpool v Crystal Palace | L | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 29 Jun 2020 | Crystal Palace v Burnley | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 4 Jul 2020 | Leicester City v Crystal Palace | L | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 7 Jul 2020 | Crystal Palace v Chelsea | L | 2-3 | Premier League |
| 12 Jul 2020 | Aston Villa v Crystal Palace | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 16 Jul 2020 | Crystal Palace v Manchester United | L | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 20 Jul 2020 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Crystal Palace | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Jul 2020 | Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
I am, sure that as they built up to 26 July last year Tottenham were expecting something a little better, but as so often, failed to deliver.
However to be fair we should add that in the run of four unbeaten in 2019, one of those games was a victory over Arsenal.
But certainly Palace do go in for some rummy runs at the end of the campaign, as with this 2017 run of four defeats and a 4-0 win.
| 26 Apr 2017 | Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 29 Apr 2017 | Crystal Palace v Burnley | L | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 6 May 2017 | Manchester City v Crystal Palace | L | 5-0 | Premier League |
| 14 May 2017 | Crystal Palace v Hull City | W | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 21 May 2017 | Manchester United v Crystal Palace | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
However this season the run up has not been so good as they have scored only five goals in the last seven league games at home.
The other thing to note about Palace is that generally they don’t do well in all-London games and this year only Fulham have done worse. Here are the games
| Date | Game | Res | Score | |
| 03 Oct 2020 | Chelsea v Crystal Palace | L | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 24 Oct 2020 | Fulham v Crystal Palace | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 13 Dec 2020 | Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 16 Dec 2020 | West Ham United v Crystal Palace | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 14 Jan 2021 | Arsenal v Crystal Palace | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Jan 2021 | Crystal Palace v West Ham United | L | 2-3 | Premier League |
| 28 Feb 2021 | Crystal Palace v Fulham | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 07 Mar 2021 | Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace | L | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 10 Apr 2021 | Crystal Palace v Chelsea | L | 1-4 | Premier League |
So in terms of beating Fulham, they managed it away, otherwise it was all a bit tacky. And both the last two all-London games were lost by 4-1.
On the other hand we could win four Premier League games in a row for the first time since August to October 2018 when under Mr Emery we went about our business like this…
| Date | Game | Res | Score | |
| 25 Aug 2018 | Arsenal v West Ham United | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 02 Sep 2018 | Cardiff City v Arsenal | W | 2-3 | Premier League |
| 15 Sep 2018 | Newcastle United v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 23 Sep 2018 | Arsenal v Everton | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 29 Sep 2018 | Arsenal v Watford | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 07 Oct 2018 | Fulham v Arsenal | W | 1-5 | Premier League |
| 22 Oct 2018 | Arsenal v Leicester City | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
What’s more we have done quite well in all-London games – unbeaten in the last 16 and in our last three away games the opposition has completely failed to score.
But Palace do have two players with higher rankings than anyone in our team. Our two top men are Saka and Lacazette both with a 6.92 ranking. Palace have Benteke with 7.06 and Zaha (forever tipped by the know-nothing men of the media to be coming to Arsenal) has 6.93.
Next up the teams.
- Palace lose their manager, and how Arsenal and Palace have done since Xmas,
- How Arsenal became the cleanest club in Europe but still got the points.
- Crystal Palace away: the stats no other site will give you.
