CRYSTAL PALACE
SAM ALLARDYCE has accused his Crystal Palace players of thinking they were safe from relegation.
After a run of six wins and a draw in eight games to reach 38 points, Palace have lost three in a row without scoring a goal and are back in the mire.
This “capitulation”, as Allardyce described it, coupled with Swansea’s 1-0 win over Everton, means they need at least a draw against fellow strugglers Hull at Selhurst Park on Saturday to guarantee survival.
If they lose, it will mean last-day drama back in Manchester – on the red side of the city – and that is something Allardyce wants to avoid.
“I don’t want to even think about going to Old Trafford and needing points to stay in the Premier League. I want to go and get it against Hull. It’s now our most important game of the season,” said Allardyce.
“That 38-point mark seems to have had a negative effect on our results, certainly against Burnley and Manchester City, not so much against Tottenham.
“You can see teams dip away and I think we have. We’ve been guilty of that maybe a little bit. I’ve warned them about it but you can tell the players as much as you want and warn them as often as you can, but when they walk over that white line, they’ve got to have the spot-on desire, determination and ability to achieve.”
It wasn’t the fact they lost to City, it was the manner of the defeat that upset Allardyce. Palace were a pale shadow of the team that beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool recently.
“If we are to win a game, every player has to be 100 per cent on song and you can say we were not 100 per cent against City,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough but our performance was so full of errors and I didn’t expect that. Lose, yes. But lose like that, no. It was unacceptable.”
Not many teams could have lived with City in this form, however.
When they perform like this, underlines that they have under-achieved in Pep Guardiola’s first season.
Guardiola knows why they have not sustained a title challenge. Despite an impressive goal tally of 112 in all competitions, his side have not been ruthless enough in key matches against the other top seven clubs.
Plus, they have not been solid enough at the back.
Vincent Kompany’s long absence has hit them hard. But even though he has now played five successive games and finally looks to be over his injury it P W D L F A C PALACE 36 11 5 20 46 61 SWANSEA 36 10 5 21 41 69 HULL 36 9 7 20 36 69 MIDDLESBRO 35 5 13 17 26 45 SUNDERLAND 35 6 6 23 28 60 PTS 38 35 34 28 24