Yes, any of those rich teams can play badly, but this forum isn't about them, it's about us. We played badly. And I don't see any harm in saying it even in the wake of a victory. Many said we deserved better from the Watford game. No harm in saying that either. That's one of the great attractions of this game of ours.

On a slightly different point, I wonder whether anyone agrees me that the players' reaction to the final whistle was surprisingly muted. No arms in the air, no sense of achievement, barely even a sense of relief. To me they looked very pensive - as well they might.

If you were there they all came over for a couple of minutes and were really pleased.
Kouyate jumped the barrier and gave his shirt to a young palace fan.
Then got his name sung and Tompkins punched the air
In triumph. Trust me they were delighted to get away with three points.
Motd doesnt do it justice.
On the game we did have our chances and should have had the second which was disallowed.

Two minor comments in the thread deserve amplification:

1) We're lucky that Hennessey's hesitation on the missed header didn't cost us. That seemed like an fundamental mistake. His slap-down mishandling of the late-game drive (low and to his left) was also reminiscent of his suspect play prior to the April-May-August run of strong performances.

2) On any broadcasts, was there a good explanation of the disallowed goal? On highlight replays I can't see any reason for denying it.

Here we go again with the anti Hennessey posts. Have just watched the highlights and the cross for the missed header shouldn't have been Hennessey's ball but he came out and that put the forward off enough for him to misdirect his header. The save was not a slap down but a good save for a tall keeper getting down to a shot low to his left and stopping a goal. Not even the best keeper in the league (De Gea) holds every shot at his goal.

Conjunctivitis.com - A site for sore eyes.

Sorry but WH bottled that cross. There is no other explanation.
It is not have a go at him time - why don't you read what is written first!!

Edited by The Dolphin (16 Sep 2018 7.12pm)

I think this is going to be something we see a lot. No matter the formation we generally seem to be happy to have full backs crossing from deeper positions. Roy seems to back Tomkins and Sakho to deal with that sort of ball, and instead a) pack the middle and b) also stop teams getting round behind AWB and PVA.

Employee of the month is a good example of how someone can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.