Crystal Palace’s opening-day Premier League highs and lows | OneFootball

Crystal Palace’s opening days have swung from stirring debuts to grim setbacks, with five wins, four draws and eight defeats across 17 Premier League openers.

According to TheEaglesBeak.com, early chapters include a 3-3 with Blackburn when Alan Shearer struck twice and Mark Bright signed off with a towering header, then 1994/95’s 6-1 home loss to Liverpool.

In 1997 at Everton, Attilio Lombardo scored on debut and Bruce Dyer converted a penalty he had won. The 2013 return brought a striking Holmesdale banner but a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham via Roberto Soldado’s penalty.

Under interim Keith Millen in 2014, Brede Hangeland gave Palace a shock lead at Arsenal before Laurent Koscielny and a late Aaron Ramsey reply turned it round. Yohan Cabaye echoed Lombardo’s impact in 2015, sealing a 3-1 win at Norwich after goals from Wilfried Zaha and Damien Delaney, with Nathan Redmond scoring for the hosts and John Ruddy beaten in stoppage time.

The nadir came in 2017, a 3-0 home reverse to newly promoted Huddersfield Town under Frank de Boer. Roy Hodgson supplied brighter starts, including victory at Fulham in 2018 after Jeffrey Schlupp opened the scoring and Wilfried Zaha added another, and a 1-0 at Sheffield United where Odsonne Edouard struck and Hodgson clashed with Max Lowe.

There was also a behind-closed-doors 1-0 win over Southampton in 2020 through Zaha, plus draws with Norwich in 2004, Everton in 2019 and Chelsea last season when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick was chalked off for encroachment.

With Everton visiting on Saturday, the omens for new head coach Pierre Sage are mixed. The last newcomers to open a Palace Premier League season without finishing the prior campaign were de Boer, Vieira, beaten 3-0 at Chelsea with Trevoh Chalobah scoring, and Millen, edged late by Arsenal. If Sage can buck the trend and win an opener, something Oliver Glasner did not manage, it could shift the mood.

Source: TheEaglesBeak.com

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