TalkSport panellist Alex Crook believes Crystal Palace will be ‘looking over their shoulder this season’.
As far as starts to the campaign go, the Eagles perhaps have been handed the toughest.
After a 2-0 defeat in the curtain raiser to Arsenal last Friday night they now head to Anfield as massive underdogs and could very well have no points from six come Monday evening.
With a trip to the champions, Manchester City also around the corner not even the most optimistic of Palace fans will be expecting to have much to shout about in the opening weeks of the season although they did record a 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium last season.
However, despite finishing in 12th and 13 points ahead of the bottom three last term, Crook believes it could be a long season for Patrick Vieira’s side.
Speaking on the TalkSport GameDay podcast, he said:
“I think Liverpool will have too much for Crystal Palace. I actually think, and I said this on the podcast on Sunday, that Crystal Palace might be one of those sides looking over their shoulder because I just don’t think they’ve done enough in the window to complement their squad from last season.”
TIF Thoughts on Crook’s comments…
Do you think Palace will improve on last season?
Yes
No
While the loss of last year’s player of the season Conor Gallagher will be huge, Vieira has brought in combative midfielder Cheick Doucoure to provide a platform in midfield.
Sam Johnstone has been recruited for between the sticks and considering he made the most saves in the top-flight during his last campaign at this level (166) it will likely prove a smart piece of business.
Wilfried Zaha is coming off the best goalscoring season of his career to date with 14 goals in the Premier League and while there may have been doubts over depth in defence with only James Tomkins in reserve behind Joachim Andersen and Marc Guehi, the versatile American Chris Richards has been signed.
There is every chance that the Selhurst Park club are in the bottom three heading into September, however, to think that they will be embroiled in a relegation scrap does seem pretty bold, to say the least.
To play Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City in the first four games, two of those away from home, would be difficult for any side outside of the top 5. Villa at home will be a better test to see where we are likely to be and hopefully get our season started. We still have two weeks to hopefully bring in what we need and I’m sure PV and Dougie are working round the clock to get these over the line .