Cherries Clip Eagles Wings

ournemouth and Palace played out an intriguing 0-0 draw in a tense Boxing Day afternoon at Dean Court. It meant both teams maintained recent good runs, the Cherries now six unbeaten. On reflection though it will be the home team who will look back on the better chances missed, with former Palace favourite Murray particularly profligate.

Eddie sprang his habitual surprise with the inclusion of Stanislas (watch for King v Arsenal) and Murray continued up front in the same line up that started against West Brom. Palace made arguably the better start with a lot of high pressing and set pieces rocking Bournemouth back on their heels and it brought the first clear chance when Boruc saved brilliantly low down from Delaney’s towering header.

Palace couldn’t keep up the energy though and Bournemouth edged their way back into the game with a series of fine passing moves. From the first of these Arter’s shot was well saved by Hennessey.

This sparked a period of great play and possession from Bournemouth that just lacked a goal. Murray spurned the games best chance when he headed wide, five yards out, from Stanislas’s pin point cross. In his defence potentially the arrival of Ritchie, who jumped with him, may have put the striker off.

Murray was in the thick of it five minutes later when his slide just missed Smith’s cross then Gosling’s deflected shot hit the side netting as the Cherries ramped up the pressure. Surman slid just wide from the resulting corner.

The game then developed a bit of edge with a few tackles flying in and the ball pinging around in the air. It was like a brief nostalgic return to league two for the home fans. It ended when Arter went through Zaha like a ton of bricks on the side line. It was fairly reminiscent of the tackle that saw Mcclean sent off last week and Zaha retaliated with an elbow as both players lay on the ground. A different ref could have seen a red and a yellow for Arter and Zaha respectively. It was a great relief to the home fans when both received one grade down from this.

One last blast by Stanislas from a Daniel’s cross and a Mutch flicked header from a similar Zaha ball ended an enterprising half.

HT Bournemouth 0 Palace 0

Eddie Howe withdrew Arter from second half action to save any further squad depletion with O’Kane replacing him. Pardew also brought on Palaces playmaker Cabaye and moved to a five man midfield by withdrawing Mutch.

This set the tone for a very different half with longer spells of away possession and a more considered approach. This isolated Murray from the rest of the team and the waves of red attacks largely petered out. Francis tried to sieze control with another great run and pass to O’Kane but Hennessey tipped his drive over the crossbar.

Gosling then burst onto a loose ball to cut in but he elected to pass to the better placed Murray inside the area. The former Palace favourite completely fluffed his lines with a weak ground shot straight at Hennessey.

Both teams were fast running out of ideas and while the football was pretty and energetic, defences were largely on top. Rantie arrived for some cameo runs and he had a shot blocked by Dann which he should have got off earlier but there was little danger to either keeper as the game fizzled into a draw.

FT Bournemouth 0 Palace 0

Boruc 7 – Safe hands and one excellent save.

Smith 9 – Outstanding attacking and much better defensively.
Cook 7 – Largely untroubled and solid aerially and on ground.
Francis 8 – Continued his outstanding form as a mobile centre half.
Daniels 8 – Another top energetic performance in a season of them.

Ritchie 6 – Hard working but not a lot of tracking back blunted him.
Arter 7 – Looking in control of game until rush of blood.
Gosling 6 – Great legs and effort – first touch not always on point.
Surman 7 – Tidy with great reading of the game and movement.
Stanislas 6 – Good first half, quiet second – couple of great crosses.

Murray 5 – Not great at lone role and finishing as deserted him too.

(O’Kane 6 – clever at times but misplaces too many passes.)
Verdict
A great game that shows how far this team has come. Palace are not fifth for no reason and have the best away record in the league but we should have beaten them – and would of with Wilson playing. This will be Eddie’s prime January objective. The team are more solid at the back by the five man midfield but in tight games the one up front has to score when presented with a great chance and King, Murray, Kermit and Rantie do not offer this service consistently enough.

The defence has been a revelation – two goals conceded in four games now with the full backs outstanding, Francis looking like a modern day Bobby Moore and Cook better now back on his left foot more.

The midfield is high energy – it needs Arter though and the arrival of Palace’s best midfielder coinciding with the withdrawal of ours was potentially the pivotal moment of the match. While Stanislas and Kings pace have been rightly attributed as the reason behind our revival the return of an on form Harry has been equal to it and we missed him second half.

So, it is up front that needs the concentration. We accumulated three strikers to play with Wilson, none of whom can play without him and we are now hanging on the hamstring of a player bought to be no more than a back up and one for the future. Added impetus and pace up front in the transfer window should, with the other lessons learned, see us safe – we are certainly now proving we are more than capable.

Today we outplayed a team in 5th having beaten the champions and the team in third in consecutive games and won away at an established Tony Pulis side. We are also at the 20 point mark before we have got half way through the season. That’s a mile away from Tottenham and the first half at Southampton. It’s the best we could have envisaged and now Eddie has a chance to put things in place for the second half of the season having made another purse out of a bit of a sows ear of injuries to key personnel.

It will be an interesting next 30 days.

Report by Neil Dawson