I feared last night’s game. I feared the intensity of Palace, I feared them hitting us on the counter, I feared the pressure getting to our players, I feared that one or two sub par performances could cause us issues.

We didn’t get one or two though. We got a full 11 poor performances. Last night was abysmal and to cap it all off, this thin squad is now already looking bare bones with the news that Tierney may miss the rest of the season (f*ck you very much Steve Clarke, Scotland manager, for needlessly playing Tierney for full 90 minutes in two international friendlies, because he came back injured), as well as Partey limping off and Arteta saying that it looked to be similar to the problems he’s had before. If true, that could also be practically the end of his season and potentially given his importance, it could derail our attempt at top four. We are level on points with the Scum and a massive swing on goal difference in one weekend, but it is the long term ramifications that I fear, because Nuno Tavares demonstrated that he isn’t looking good enough for a sustained run in the team and was hooked at halftime having been at fault for the first goals. Sambi looks a good prospect but the difference between him and Partey we all know.

Yes friends, in the cold light of day today, it is feeling to your humble narrator here like last night could have been the negative turning point in a season that has looked so promising up to now. Injuries and a shocking performance have left me feeling quite low.

And it was a shocking performance. Truly awful. The players should not have a day off today. They should be made to go to London Colney and re-watch that game again and again, because it was simply unacceptable. In the Premier League you can rarely afford one or two players having an off game, but this was like a team who have never played together. To a man we were appalling.

Ramsdale – his kicking was wayward, he was unusually flustered when put under pressure, which probably impacted those in front of him. Couldn’t do anything about the goals but it was a slightly below par performance from the England ‘keeper.

Cedric – his form has been better of late but what we saw last night was what happens when a tricky and pacey winger comes up against him. He was roasted for most of the evening and although he wasn’t the biggest problem on the night, again, the step down in class between him and Tomiyasu was obvious.

White – silly foul to give away for Palace’s first goal and looked jittery last night. Not as bad as his defensive partner though. He’s the sort of guy who I feel like if his partner has a good game, then White will have a good game, but when his partner is off he doesn’t step in to the limelight and take charge. Maybe I’m being harsh, but it’s just the impression I get.

Gabriel – horrible, horrible performance. All over the place, misplaced passes, plus for the second goal he was shocking. Looked ropey and scared the bejesus out of me every time Palace had any kind of attack. I don’t know whether the new born baby means he wasn’t getting any sleep, but this isn’t his first kid and he’s suddenly not going to find a way of having a child to be quiet the day before a match, so I hope this is just a rare shoddy performance. But he needs to have a look at himself today.

Tavares – holy cow he was bad. I spoke to my mate Johnny Cochrane at halftime and he did say that to be fair, Nuno is coming in from the cold because he just hasn’t been given any minutes. I get that. But his performance was horrible, because he was at fault for the first goal in not properly tracking his man and then for not covering Gabriel after his shocking miss. Was rightly hooked at halftime and we have to be really worried about him in future matches if we see more of that.

Xhaka – didn’t really see a lot of him and didn’t really impose himself on the game, but at least he seemed to be able to find a man with a pass. That was more than what could be said about his two other midfielders Partey and Odegaard, who stunk the place out. I’ll come to them in a sec but Xhaka was ok, then moved to left back, so not really a night in which you can say was one in which we are going to see his best attributes.

Partey – my goodness he was bad. He couldn’t get simple passes right and Gallagher was a nuisance all night to him. He forced Partey at times, but his passing range when not under pressure was way off and as a player who has bossed midfields so much of late, he looked utterly lost amidst Palace’s intensity. IT was a horrible performance compounded by what looks like an injury that will probably mean his season might be over. If he’s out for a month then we won’t see him back to proper full fitness until mid May and by then the season could be done and dusted.

Odegaard – A lad I have loved to watch, but last night was one of the worst culprits in terms of his performance. I think there were three instances when a simple ball passed to him was mis-controlled and then bounced off his knee. How? Why? That never happens. And yet it was symptomatic of the overall performance from so many players last night. It’s like all of them were intimidated by the atmosphere, by the intensity shown by those Palace players, and they wilted, with Odegaard one of the main protagonists.

Saka – when he doesn’t shine it really does take a gloss off our performance and yesterday he was largely anonymous on the right hand flank. He’s been great for us lately so I won’t dig him out too much, but when you are looking for quality from some of your best players, then you are looking for a player like him to step up and he just couldn’t do it last night.

Smith Rowe – see above for Saka. Just couldn’t get the ball in dangerous positions and never really looked like creating the spark we need. But I won’t dig him out either as he was the least of the problems.

Lacazette – oh god he hurts my eyes. People have made a lot of noise about his build up play and how important he is in bringing others in to play around him. I’m sorry, I just don’t see that he does anything different to what most other strikers do. Oh, yes I do, there is one thing – he DOESN’T SCORE and he DOESN’T CAUSE ANY TROUBLE IN THE PENALTY BOX. He was a joke yesterday and it sickens me in my stomach that we are reliant on this man waddling his way around the pitch up top. An absolutely garbage footballer that we have to rely on for the rest of the season because we haven’t augmented the squad with the requisite talent to get us over the line this season domestically.

Martinelli came on and showed a few flashes, but nothing more, Eddie hit the bar but again, didn’t put it away and that’s kind of his job, plus Sambi came on and looked sharp enough. But it was a poor night and one that I really fear we will look back on and say that is where it went wrong. Yes the result is bad, but we are not out of the running. We do, however, have injuries to key players that could see us drop yet more points. And if/when that happens we will all be saying that the mistake was to leave a thin squad too thin and to gamble on the fitness of players we just cannot trust.

Back tomorrow with more thoughts. Sorry guys, this has been a particularly downbeat one today, but I cannot find any positives after what we witnessed last night.

Laters.