Site's finally back up so I can actually post this...
Of course, given the recent run of form and associated slide downward, this was a vital game to win. And win it we did, though not in the convincing fashion we might have hoped. Anything less than that win, given how poor Palace really are, would have been a disaster---yet for a very long time it was seeming like it just wasn't going to come. And really, against this sort of opposition, it should never be in doubt---which is why it's so worrying that it was.
The whole question of whether or not to continue attempting to shoehorn three strikers into the side was solved on a temporary basis by Shearer's injury, which left Kluivert and an obviously rejuvenated Bellamy upfront. While Bellamy applied himself with this new found vigour Kluivert was once again guilty of strolling through as if his only care was the wage packet at the end of the week. Make no mistake, had Henry scored a goal with such a delightful flick as Kluivert's initial contribution it would have been raved about for weeks. But also make no mistake that Henry already has a hatfull of goals and would have contributed a lot more to the game than deft, pretty touches. It's end produce that we need and that's something Kluivert must begin providing more of if the argument for his exclusion once Shearer is once again available is not to be surely overwhelming.
The midfield hardly set the world alight. Dyer, while effectual, was hardly the player he can be (at least we've seen glimpses of it in the past even if it is difficult to recall him producing top form for an entire game). Robert tried but lacked much, including theatrical skills given his ridiculous attempt to gain a penalty. At least he finally remembered how to pass rather than shoot to put Bellamy in for the second. Given the lack of invention in evidence (once more lacking ideas of how to go about unlocking a stubborn team) it must be time for Milner and/or Ambrose to be given another chance---it's difficult to see how they fail to find a place while we start with the likes of Bowyer and Dyer (at least Dyer wide). The one bright point was Jenas but keep that quite lest it goes to his head again.
Defensively we were barely tested and so learned little new. We still need to dip into the transfer market the deepest in that position come January and have to just try and hold out until then. With our record away from home (and in London) this could be taken as a welcome away victory, but against a side such as Palace it just comes as relief that we eventually did score and aren't once again bemoaning a game we dominated but came away with little. The table doesn't record that we huffed and puffed, just that we blew the three points down. The problem is that really that was the easy test, the house made of straw. The coming games one fears are much more challenging and we'll have to find something of a second wind to come through those.
(@19:11)
