Improved Palace blow it after handing Burnley dream start

Will Frank de Boer be turfed out after this defeat at Turf Moor? The oddness of this encounter is that Crystal Palace were undeniably the better side, were markedly improved from their crushing 2-0 home loss against Swansea City which almost caused De Boer to be sacked as manager on the spot, and there was the demanded compromise in formation, approach and personnel which made them feel far more familiar.

But they lost. Again. And they did not score a goal. Again.

Four games into this Premier League campaign and Palace have become the first team in its 25-year history to fail to register. An away day at Burnley was always going to be a tough task to save your job but that is what De Boer faced in this most unforgiving of leagues.

What will hurt is the nature of the loss. If the Dutchman goes, then Palace’s owners will stand accused of blundering in appointing him in the first place – no manager has ever lasted just four Premier League matches – and understandably so.

However, if the owners have shot themselves in the foot, then the way this game unfolded proved another example of that happening on the pitch.

From the goal Palace conceded to the opportunities they spurned, they were the victims of their own hapless downfall.

They presented Burnley with the chance to go ahead and then wasted two gaping opportunities to draw level and saw two others cleared off the line. Defender Scott Dann was

involved in three of those incidents and when he somehow headed wide from just a couple of yards out, as he was found by Yohan Cabaye with a precise cross, it was the most profligate of all. He held his head in disbelief. It was in the 89th minute and it was desperate from Dann.

It was desperate from Palace at the start, in fact. In a game with so much riding on it they blew up. They blew it.

The goal came inside three minutes with a woefully underhit back-pass by Lee Chung-yong – making a first start since February and for some reason running back towards his own goal – presenting Chris Wood with the opportunity to score on his first Premier League start since his £15 million move from Leeds United.

Wood took it, sweeping the ball confidently, first time, past the onrushing goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey from a full 25 yards. It

meant the New Zealand striker had – with his injury-time goal against Tottenham Hotspur on his debut – scored two goals within four minutes for his new club. Not a bad immediate return for Burnley.

Palace were in shock – although they could have quickly drawn level if Dann’s shot on the turn from a corner not been hacked off the goal-line by Matt Lowton. What was strange was how disjointed Burnley, who changed their own approach by playing two strikers, then became. Their manager, Sean Dyche, admitted that Palace, with Andros Townsend impressive, had been the better team.

Even so, the game meandered for an hour, it was hardly as if Palace were dominant or urgent, with the visitors failing to capitalise on the loss of Burnley goalkeeper and captain Tom Heaton who fell awkwardly and suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder.

His replacement, Nick Pope, was making his Premier League debut and faced little pressure until, finally, the ball broke through to Christian Benteke, who kind of passed to himself, and who found himself clear on goal. The striker attempted to side-foot past Pope but the goalkeeper stuck out his left boot and superbly turned it away before, soon after, he beat out a drive from Cabaye.

Jeffrey Schlupp also blazed over and the agony for Palace was capped by Dann’s poor header, which followed another shot from him being cleared off the goal-line by James Tarkowski.

The efforts-on-goal count stood at 23 to four – Burnley really did lack ambition – in Palace’s favour and they certainly did not deserve to lose. But lose they did.

Their players – who could not be faulted for their effort – slumped to the Turf Moor turf in frustration at the end as De Boer marched defiantly across it.