Crystal Palace opened the day with zero points so far in their Premier League campaign. There was a sense of urgency as fans continued to be frustrated at the results.
Palace were up against tough opposition in Burnley, who had picked up four points in the league. That includes beating Chelsea on the opening day and drawing against Tottenham at Wembley.
Palace were without three of their key players. Wilfried Zaha and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were injured, and new signing Mamadou Sakho was not fit to play. Young player Levi Lumeka was named on the bench with a lack of depth being avaliable for the Eagles.
Burnley started with Chris Wood leading the line, who scored on his Premier League debut last time out.
Burnley Pile on the Misery for Crystal Palace
Bad Beginning at Turf Moor
It was the worst possible start for the Eagles; Chung-Yong Lee played a terrible back pass which was picked up by Chris Wood. Wayne Hennessy came out of his box and was hopeless to stop Wood as he side-footed the ball around him. It was unclear what Lee was thinking as the ball could only be described as a perfect pass to Chris Wood.
Slightly later in the game, Scott Dann had a decent effort cleared off the line by a Burnley player. Shortly after, Benteke headed just wide. It was clear that Palace needed to take their chances more efficiently if they wished to score.
Towards the latter end of the second half, Yohan Cabaye struck a free kick into the wall in an attempt to equalise.
Not long after that, Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton collided with a team mate and injured his shoulder. He had to be replaced with backup goalkeeper and former Charlton player, Nick Pope.
Improvement, but to no Avail
Both teams started the second half off slowly but Crystal Palace were the team with more possession and more chances.
Surprisingly, Levi Lumeka came on in the 65th minute for Lee who had massively under-performed. It was almost a dream to start to his senior career for the Eagles as Lumeka had an attempt deflected just over from close range.
Burnley turned the gas back on as the match progressed with a good effort provoking an equally good save from Hennessy to get two hands on a curler and push it wide of the goal. However, it was Palace who regained control of the match instantly after with Scott Dann having another shot cleared off the line, remarkably.
Crystal Palace began to look nervous as the game reached the last ten minutes. Not only the players, but the manager and the chairman were also visibly unhappy. Yohan Cabaye struck a very good shot towards goal. Unfortunately though, Pope was in the right place and he made the save.
The last chance of the game was the best one and it landed at the head of Scott Dann. With just a few minutes to go, Cabaye crossed the ball for a certain tap in for Dann but it was astonishingly headed wide of the goal. The game ended with a lot of Palace fans left (once again) disappointed.
Unwanted Record
Amazingly, this means that Crystal Palace are the first ever Premier League team to lose their first four games in the league without scoring a goal. Unfortunately, this does not look likely to change any time soon either.
There are many questions that we are left with after today’s game. The most important one perhaps is whether or not that was Frank De Boer’s last game in charge of the Eagles. Fans are still split over whether or not De Boer should go, but after there was no success again, even after changing the system, maybe it is time to say that the experiment did not work.
Palace host Southampton next as they continue their quest for a point.
Main Photo
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