Crystal Palace vs Swansea – Premier League Match Preview

Dan Tracey August 29, 2017 Leave a comment 1,653 Views

Life in the Premier League has been something of a culture shock for Frank De Boer as he has yet to get off the mark since taking charge of Crystal Palace, not only that but he has also failed to see his team score a goal in their opening two matches.

The former Dutch international will be hoping that today is the day at his Palace side can get themselves off the mark and get some points on the board, if they are to do so then they are going to have to make sure that Swansea do not get the better of them.

Paul Clement’s side are not faring all that better in all fairness, they may have got off the mark on the opening weekend of the season after playing out a stalemate with Southampton at St Mary’s but they still are yet to breach an opposition defence.

For Palace after the embarrassment of losing to Huddersfield at Selhurst Park on the opening Saturday by a scoreline of three goals to nil, their defence was slightly more resistant last weekend when they traveled to Anfield. A ground which has treated them well over the past few seasons.

Unfortunately their run of three successive wins on Merseyside was bought to a close as a much changed Liverpool ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Sadio Mane’s second half goal. Whether that is progress on the part of the South London outfit or just because Liverpool were not at full strength can be argued.

But today will provide the real acid test as to just how exactly they will fare in this division, if you can put the opening day defeat down to a blip albeit an early one and being outclassed by Liverpool then playing a team that is more than likely going to be in and around them this season will be a real measuring stick to life under Frank De Boer.

For Swansea it is a case of no goals and no service either, life after Gylfi Sigurdsson has not been all that great with Tammy Abraham cutting a lone furrow in Swansea’s attack. For all the endeavour that the youngster has shown he has been let down by a lack of supply lines.

That was all too evident last weekend when the Swans were eventually well beaten by Manchester United. The 4-0 scoreline did not perhaps reflect the 90 minutes but the way in which they conceded three goals in the last 10 minutes will have been of definite concern to Paul Clement.

With a lack of goals at one end the last thing he needs is to start shipping goals at the other and returning to the kind of defensive performances that were being shown during that very ill fated Bob Bradley era of the previous season.

I don’t think it will necessarily be a tense affair at Selhurst Park this afternoon but if a team does lose then it will add unwarranted pressure on that manager even at this early stage of the season. Frank De Boer needs a positive outcome perhaps more to prove that he is not just another foreign manager out of his depth. I have a feeling though that this one will end up in a draw

Here is what social media thinks will happen, you may still be able to vote actually