Crystal Palace v West Ham United Thursday 26th December 2019 // 3pm
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INSIDE THE PROGRAMME CRYSTAL PALACE v WEST HAM UNITED THURSDAY 26TH DECEMBER 2019 | 3PM K.O.
Directors Steve Parish, Chairman David Blitzer, Joshua Harris Chief Executive Phil Alexander Chief Financial Officer Sean O’Loughlin Sporting Director Dougie Freedman Club Secretary
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Christine Dowdeswell Head of Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning
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Scott Guyett Head of Medical Dr. Zaf Iqbal Academy Director Gary Issott Director of U23 Development Mark Bright Head Groundsman Bruce Elliott Commercial Director Barry Webber Operations Director Sharon Lacey Head of Consumer Sales Mike Pink Head of Ticketing Paul McGowan Head of Legal David Nichol Head of Content & Production James Woodroof Head of CRM & Campaigns Tom McGuiness Head of Safeguarding Marcus Puddephatt
72 Editor Dan Blazer Design Billy Cooke, Luke Thomas Contributors Ben Mountain, Ian King, Dom Fifield, Chris Waters, Grace Cullen, Chris Grierson, Matt Franks Photography Neil Everitt, Seb Frej, Reuters, Pinnacle, Rex Features Printer Bishops Printers
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Copers Cope
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Chris Grierson
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Junior Eagles
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Amateur Analysis
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A Corner of South London
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Dom Fifield
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Cuppa in the Canteen
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Palace XI in Time
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Fixtures & Results
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ROY HODGSON
We are well and truly into the thick of the season’s most demanding period of football, and we have been dealt a challenging hand by a twist of fate that has seen us face the blow of having three players in the same position ruled out through injury. Excluding Andros Townsend, all of our recent injuries have affected the defence where we had been so thoroughly well-stocked previously. Today, Mamadou Sakho is back from suspension and I am hoping we will have been boosted by Patrick van Aanholt returning to the team. However, for the second time in a highly congested run of fixtures, I have had to submit my notes for this page well in advance of the game. I therefore cannot comment about last Saturday’s match with Newcastle United. Every football follower will be aware of – and no doubt enjoys – the demand of the festive schedule, which throws up situations such as these. What is often overlooked is the physical intensity which players must endure with these top-flight, elite performances and the impact this can have on them. This season, we have been fortunate to play at home and
so the team and I have been able to spend some time with our families before today. West Ham will have been less fortunate and no doubt spent their Christmas evening in a Croydon hotel! It has been particularly pleasing to see members of our squad spend what limited time they have this month using their privileged position as footballers to benefit less fortunate people in society. I have seen the team visit local hospitals recently and make deliveries to nearby food banks. They have also delighted young fans by paying visits to Christmas parties hosted by the club. Their presence at the one organised for our children with disabilities was particularly appreciated where, once again, the president, Bill Nighy, gave up his time to mingle with the children and pose for photographs. Palace players are aware of the good fortune that they have enjoyed, albeit through years of hard work, and I am proud to see them ‘give something back’ to the community. Behind closed doors and away from the cameras at Christmas, I can say with confidence that the squad continue
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to impact the world positively and entirely of their own volition. Our last match here at Selhurst Park delivered a very pleasing point earned through the grit and determination for what this club is known. We showed great character and could hold our heads high after pulling level in difficult circumstances to record the draw which for long periods seemed to be beyond our reach. The game was played and supported in the right manner as commitment mixed with respect and I am looking forward to more of the same this afternoon in another London derby. West Ham United always provide a stern test both home and away and we had to fight until the final whistle to get our win earlier this season. With the Palace supporters behind us today, I am hoping we can replicate that commendable display. Finally, New Year’s Eve will have passed before I write my next programme notes so I will end these ones by wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year. Looking forward to seeing you all here again in the next decade! Enjoy the game.
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Good afternoon to everyone here from West Ham United today and welcome to each and every one of you from Crystal Palace. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas.
What a decade it has been for the Eagles: saved from administration to now being a firmly established Premier League club, looking up the table rather than down. No player has featured more for Palace during the last 10 years than Wilfried Zaha, and here he sits down with Dan Blazer to look back on that journey.
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Andros Townsend smacked in his Puskas Award contender against Manchester City is not forgotten. Zaha was deployed upfront for that 90-minutes, and he reveals it wasn’t the ideal circumstances for him: “That was a tough day for me to be honest. But you know when you have to put a shift in for the team, then you just do it. I was just running through blind alleys, chasing lost causes. “But Andros’ goal. Wow. When the ball goes out to him, I wasn’t surprised. That’s the thing, Andros just tends to do that: shoot from crazy places. I had a feeling he would shoot but I was thinking: ‘please just bring it down and let’s start again!’ When I saw it go top corner, I thought this is the craziest goal I have ever seen. It was unreal.” Roy Hodgson’s Palace have built up a reputation as a side who can conquer the biggest teams in England, in their own backyards, and last season, finally, the Emirates Stadium fell to the Eagles too. When discussing that clash with Unai Emery’s side, Zaha gives an interesting insight into his and Christian Benteke’s relationship: “That was a massive game. I now feel like we go in to games knowing we have enough to hurt other teams and don’t need to defend and we went to the Emirates with that mindset.
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“We applied what the gaffer wanted us to do: get it up top to Chris. And I tried to do what I do best and get on the end of his headers, and that’s what led to my goal. Chris literally knows where I am! We have such a good relationship. He will divert his headers to wherever I may be. “He managed to put it in the area I’m going, and Mustafi is trying to block me off even though the ‘keeper isn’t even coming for it! So, I just took that second when I saw Leno wasn’t coming to shrug him off, compose myself and score my goal.” You don’t always get the impression that a footballer has enjoyed an interview – the same humdrum would be tedious for anyone – but there’s a sparkle in Zaha’s eyes when going through these iconic moments of the past decade. It’s a journey he’s enjoyed and one that is very much still going: “On the pitch, my end product has improved greatly and I’m always continuing to try and be more consistent in terms of goals and assists. “But as a person, I’ve matured since 2010. I’m keeping my temperament more now. That’s slowly changing. Obviously, I’m still working on this. It’s not easy but having my son has made a massive difference to my life.” Thanks for the last decade, Wilf.
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JAÏRO RIEDEWALD & TYRICK MITCHELL
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MAMADOU SAKHO
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ROY HODGSON & WILFRIED ZAHA
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CHRISTIAN BENTEKE
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OPPOSITION IN NUMBERS
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The Hammers are one of just eight clubs who have never played below the second tier of English football. Including this season, they have spent an impressive 62 of 94 campaigns in the top-flight.
By Chris Waters @Clapham_Grand
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The number of years separating legendary player Billy Bonds’ first and last Hammer of the Year awards, as voted for by the West Ham supporters. Bonds’ first win was in 1971 (after already twice being runner-up), and his last was in 1987.
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The number of permanent managers the club has had in their 118-year history - making an average tenure of seven years. The club’s first ever manager, Syd King, occupied the hot seat for the longest with an astonishing 31 years at the helm.
The win percentage of caretaker manager Trevor Brooking when he managed the team in 2003 after Glenn Roeder’s departure. The legendary Hammers’ midfielder took charge of 14 games - losing just once - before handing over to Alan Pardew.
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The number of days £1.2million signing Joey Beauchamp was at the Irons, having been bought ahead of the 1994/95 Premier League season. Citing homesickness for his native Oxford, the midfielder never played a competitive game for West Ham and soon returned west to Swindon Town.
SOMEONE THEY’D LIKE TO FORGET: England’s all-time record goalscorer tormented the Hammers in his 23 games against them for Manchester United and Everton, scoring 15 times and setting up four.
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GAME CHANGER footballfoundation.org.uk 52 AD-105x148-FF-Game Changer.indd 1
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The poster went up outside the club shop. At first glance it was bog standard. It advertised away travel to Crystal Palace’s next fixture at Charlton Athletic, with buses collecting supporters on Holmesdale Road at 10.30am, providing a packed lunch and dropping them at the stadium prior to the 3pm kick-off. Except, on this occasion, there was a twist given the coaches intended to conduct a sightseeing tour of central London before heading back south, with their final destination only slightly further up the road outside the away end at Selhurst Park. It was in mid-December that landlords and reluctant tenants were thrust against each other in opposition for the first time since Charlton took up temporary residence in this corner of south London back in September 1985. For over four years they had ground-shared while competing in different divisions. Now, as Alan Parry had suggested in a cliché riddled featurette for ITV’s Saturday morning show, Saint & Greavsie, it was time for “the marriage to be consummated”. The clubs had never been particularly fierce rivals, but had
arguably grown further apart while occupying the same workplace. Everything about Charlton’s existence at Selhurst felt temporary, with their hierarchy understandably anxious to reassure an unsettled fanbase the priority was always to return home. “Although Charlton feel they’re lodgers, we would like them to feel they share the stadium,” said the Palace chairman, Ron Noades. “It’s not our fault, really, that they’ve carried on as lodgers. The scoreboard here, Palace paid for. Charlton were invited to share (the costs) and declined. The family enclosure here, Palace paid for. Charlton were invited to share and declined. So they have had the offer of facilities and not taken them up. That, in the long-term, is their loss.“ For Palace’s supporters and even players, the prospect of the away trip to familiar surroundings was just as unsettling. The away ticket board, with details stencilled out in black marker pen, detailed £5 for terrace, and £9 for members to buy seats. “The advertising hoardings around the ground will all be changed around,” said Noades. “Our fans will be in the away area, which they will find unusual
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and quite unacceptable when they’re turning up at the Box Office and asking for tickets in the areas where they were standing or sitting previously. “The team will go in the away dressing room for the first time. Steve [Coppell] and I will sit in the directors’ seats of the away team, which is most unusual really. But while I’m pleased we won at Manchester United last week – otherwise we’d be looking to secure a first away win on our own ground – we’ve got a better chance of winning an away game than we’ve had this season.” Palace’s second success on their ‘travels’ would come at their lodgers’ expense. The Eagles, clad in their yellow away kit, led through Andy Thorn’s thumped header from Andy Gray’s free-kick. Ian Wright clattered the woodwork before Mark Bright nodded in a second, a simple header after Jeff Hopkins had flicked on a corner. Charlton were undermined further by Mark Reid’s missed penalty. Colin Walsh, who would score the Addicks’ first goal back at The Valley a little under three years later, did bend in a fine free-kick late on, but that proved a mere consolation.
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The 2019/20 season marks 30 years on from the first year ‘back’ in the top-flight under Steve Coppell, and this week The Athletic writer Dom Fifield looks back at when Charlton Athletic called Selhurst Park their home.
Happy 60th Birthday
Stephen Browett Born & raised in south London. Have a great day from your friends, family and everyone at Palace.
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CRYSTAL PALACE 1 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 1 SELHURST PARK MONDAY 16TH DECEMBER
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alac Victor CAMARASA Gary CAHILL (GK) Vicente GUAITA Martin KELLY Jaïro RIEDEWALD
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Joel WARD Patrick VAN AANHOLT Luka MILIVOJEVIC James TOMKINS Scott DANN Max MEYER Cheikhou KOUYATÉ Jordan AYEW Andros TOWNSEND Wilfried ZAHA Mamadou SAKHO (GK) Wayne HENNESSEY Jeffrey SCHLUPP Christian BENTEKE James McARTHUR (GK) Stephen HENDERSON Connor WICKHAM James McCARTHY
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Lukasz FABIANSKI (GK) Winston REID Aaron CRESSWELL Fabián BALBUENA Pablo ZABALETA Andriy YARMOLENKO Felipe ANDERSON Manuel LANZINI Robert SNODGRASS ROBERTO (GK) Carlos SÁNCHEZ Mark NOBLE Pablo FORNALS Jack WILSHERE Gonçalo CARDOSO Angelo OGBONNA Sebastien HALLER Issa DIOP Ryan FREDERICKS David MARTIN (GK) Arthur MASUAKU Albian AJETI Michail ANTONIO Declan RICE Ben JOHNSON
TODAY’S OFFICIALS Andre MARRINER Harry LENNARD Richard WEST Tom NIELD Andy MADLEY Andy GARRATT