Football.london writer Joe Doyle has been speaking on the latest edition of The Chronicle’s Everything is Black and White podcast about Crystal Palace ahead of their clash with Newcastle United.
Doyle was invited on to talk about the Eagles’ strengths and weaknesses, and was asked about how much of a miss Wilfried Zaha will be for Palace.
The 28-year-old has been ruled out of this game against the Toon after having to enter self-isolation.
This led Doyle to discuss just how much Palace will miss the Ivorian.
He said: “You just have to look at Palace’s record without Zaha, [it’s] absolutely terrible.
“They [have won] something like two of 16 games without him in the team in the last two seasons.
“It really is a case of [a] one-man club in some ways – when he is on form, everything good goes through him.
“He just offers the most threat in every situation, whether he is wide on the left and running at people or trying to turn people in the centre.
“His passing is a little bit overlooked, but he’s always looking for players in behind.”
Can Palace beat Newcastle without Zaha?
Yes, we should still win
No, we need Zaha
TIF Thoughts on Wilfried Zaha and Joe Doyle’s view on him…
This season, the Palace man has scored five goals and provided two assists, so he has been crucial to the Eagles so far.
He is also their second-highest rated player in the league with a stellar average rating of 7.07/10 (as per WhoScored).
What’s more, Palace have indeed only won two of their last 16 matches without Zaha in the Premier League – a run which stretches back to January 2017.
You can see why he will be a big miss for the Eagles tonight, and we feel that Palace might struggle to beat Newcastle without him in the side.
However, the Toon are set to be without Allan Saint-Maximin, and since he joined, Newcastle have only won one league game in which he hasn’t featured, so they will be without an important player of their own, and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.