Crystal Palace’s wait for a Premier League win under new manager Sam Allardyce goes on after a fourth consecutive defeat came at the hands of Everton at the weekend – the former England boss has just a point to his name since he took charge on Boxing Day.
This was a rot that set in last January, a run of nine losses in 11 games from the turn of the calendar year until mid-March kicked things off. The team have currently lost 12 of their last 15 games and the growing scale of the slump is fully alarming.
In their last 38 Premier League games, equivalent to a full season, Palace have managed just 27 points. The only wins during that time have come against Norwich, Stoke, Middlesbrough, Stoke again, Sunderland and Southampton.
Were that stretch of 38 games the actual season the Eagles would be dead and buried.
Their tally of 27 points from the 38 game period would never have come close to keeping them in the Premier League in any previous campaign. Only Aston Villa managed fewer points than that in 2015/16, while 27 points would have meant the humiliation of finishing bottom in 11 of the 21 full seasons since the division was reduced to 20 clubs.
The lowest ever Premier League points tally that has resulted in safety is 34. That came when West Brom miraculously beat the drop against the odds in 2004/05, while Hull and West Ham both just about managed to stay up with 35 points in 2008/09 and 2009/10 respectively.
What it that means is that Palace’s results for what has now been a consistent period, rather than just a phase, are not just obviously poor, but not even close to being good enough.
With games against Bournemouth, Sunderland and Stoke coming up after this weekend’s FA Cup fourth round clash with Manchester City, things have to improve, and fast.
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