Crystal Palace are in the Premier League in back-to-back seasons for the first time in their history. After starting 2012 as 66-1 underdogs to earn promotion out of the Championship, Tony Pulis’ side finished an amazing 11th in the BPL last season. Mind you, this was a team that was in 19th place with only 3 points after their first 10 games last season. But after Pulis took over, the team had a renewed focus, played smothering defense, and racked up 42 points in their final 28 games, earning Pulis Manager of the Year honors.
The team has a nice home-field advantage in Selhurst Park, a small, old ground that seats around 26,000 fans. The Holmesdale stand has some of the most relentless fans in the game. It’s routinely one of the rowdiest places to play, and the team travels well too.
Palace had a few very memorable moments from last season, especially as playing the spoiler. Their 1-0 win over Chelsea effectively ended Chelsea’s title hopes, and they stunned Liverpool by drawing 3-3, scoring 3 goals in the final 15 minutes to leave Luis Suarez in tears on the ground at Selhurst Park.
Despite the outburst against the Reds, this is not a team that is going to wow you with offense. In fact, last season the team scored only 33 goals all season. However, they played disciplined defense and took opportunities to counterattack when presented. Goalkeeper Julian Speroni (he is so popular that he has his own restaurant, you know) continued his solid play and Joel Ward and Damian Delaney anchored the back four. Norway captain Brede Hangeland comes over from Fulham as a center back. This year, Wayne Hennessey figures to get more playing time as Speroni is on the backside of his 30s. Captain Mile Jedinak, the first Palace player to score a goal in a World Cup, manages the defensive midfield with along with rising star Yannick Bolasie providing the offense in the middle. Up front, new signing Frazier Campbell (from Cardiff) looks to have some opportunities to score, with last year’s big signing Marouane Chamakh becoming more comfortable playing back along with Dwight Gayle and Jason Puncheon.
This is mostly the same squad as last year (the team spent the princely sum of £900,000, all on Campbell, while taking in £1,400,000 for Campaña), so it will be interesting to see if a full season under Pulis can allow them to climb a bit further up the table, and perhaps even challenge some of the big money clubs. If the season had started when Pulis took over, Palace would have been in 8th place at the end of the season. So while a Europa Cup shot is unlikely, it’s not completely unthinkable in the way it would have been at the start of last year. Realistically though, this team is more likely to finish mid-table again. Even that would be a victory though as a couple of consistent finishes may allow the team to invest in transfers in a way that they’ve not been financially secure enough to do over the past few years.
First game on August 16 at Arsenal will be a great early test to see where they stand.
The team has a nice home-field advantage in Selhurst Park, a small, old ground that seats around 26,000 fans. The Holmesdale stand has some of the most relentless fans in the game. It’s routinely one of the rowdiest places to play, and the team travels well too.
Palace had a few very memorable moments from last season, especially as playing the spoiler. Their 1-0 win over Chelsea effectively ended Chelsea’s title hopes, and they stunned Liverpool by drawing 3-3, scoring 3 goals in the final 15 minutes to leave Luis Suarez in tears on the ground at Selhurst Park.
Despite the outburst against the Reds, this is not a team that is going to wow you with offense. In fact, last season the team scored only 33 goals all season. However, they played disciplined defense and took opportunities to counterattack when presented. Goalkeeper Julian Speroni (he is so popular that he has his own restaurant, you know) continued his solid play and Joel Ward and Damian Delaney anchored the back four. Norway captain Brede Hangeland comes over from Fulham as a center back. This year, Wayne Hennessey figures to get more playing time as Speroni is on the backside of his 30s. Captain Mile Jedinak, the first Palace player to score a goal in a World Cup, manages the defensive midfield with along with rising star Yannick Bolasie providing the offense in the middle. Up front, new signing Frazier Campbell (from Cardiff) looks to have some opportunities to score, with last year’s big signing Marouane Chamakh becoming more comfortable playing back along with Dwight Gayle and Jason Puncheon.
This is mostly the same squad as last year (the team spent the princely sum of £900,000, all on Campbell, while taking in £1,400,000 for Campaña), so it will be interesting to see if a full season under Pulis can allow them to climb a bit further up the table, and perhaps even challenge some of the big money clubs. If the season had started when Pulis took over, Palace would have been in 8th place at the end of the season. So while a Europa Cup shot is unlikely, it’s not completely unthinkable in the way it would have been at the start of last year. Realistically though, this team is more likely to finish mid-table again. Even that would be a victory though as a couple of consistent finishes may allow the team to invest in transfers in a way that they’ve not been financially secure enough to do over the past few years.
First game on August 16 at Arsenal will be a great early test to see where they stand.
That's a good enough reason to pick Palace, but here are a few more: great 
