Cahill’s renaissance keeps him high in Palace ranks
As transfers go, it was more headscratching than mouthwatering. Crystal Palace had already completed their pre-season training when, five days before the season began, Gary Cahill arrived on a two-year, £75,000-a-week-deal. The response might most generously be described as muted.
The erstwhile England centreback was four months shy of his 34th birthday and had not started a Premier League game for Chelsea for the whole of last season. And while Palace were short of personnel, the presence of James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho, plus their able deputies Martin Kelly and Scott Dann, meant they were overloaded with centre-backs.
Seven months on, all four centrebacks have struggled with injury and such has been Cahill’s renaissance that it is hard to conceive of Palace starting without him.
Jordan Ayew’s first-half strike won a staccato contest 1-0 against Watford on Saturday, but Cahill – captain while Luka Milivojevic remained on the bench – rolled back the years with an imperious performance which eclipsed Troy Deeney’s bustling physicality, while showcasing the sagacity of one who has been there and done that. Palace manager Roy Hodgson, who gave
Cahill the bulk of his 61 England caps, was delighted.
“He’s been fantastic,” he said. “You may ask, ‘How does he do it?’ and the answer lies in the character of the man. His level of football skill and knowledge hasn’t diminished. In fact, with experience his knowledge might have actually increased. Luckily, he hasn’t lost anything in terms of pace, ability, aggression and technique. When Gary became free, it was too big a gift for us to let it pass us by. We’re so grateful we’ve got him.”
Palace, who have spent most of the season looking warily over their shoulder, now lie just four points behind Wolves in fifth, after three successive defeats have been followed by three 1-0 victories. “In those three defeats, we outplayed Sheffield United, at Everton Carlo Ancelotti said to me, ‘We got away with that’ and we only had 11 fit players against Southampton,” Hodgson noted. “Some of those performances in defeat were better than our victories. We knew results would turn around.”
What Watford would not give for such momentum. The team who had swept aside Liverpool gave Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita the afternoon off bar a tip over from a Deeney long-ranger and the unlikely toppling of the champions elect remains their only victory since January.
Without Gerard Deulofeu – who will miss the rest of the season with a ruptured cruciate – they lack maverick mischief. They are above the drop zone by a solitary goal and should Aston Villa beat Leicester tonight, they will be back in it.
“Overall, the performance wasn’t so bad,” defender Craig Cathcart argued. “We’ve come away disappointed not to get anything and we were a little unlucky at times.”