We continue on our Premier League journey with Crystal palace. When we left last time round, we had just reached the mid-season break for the World Cup. If you want to catch up on that episode you can do so here.
As nobody cares who won the world cup (I forgot to take a screenshot and England lost on penalties to 9-man Argentina anyway) Let's get back into the League action.
December 2022
An uncharacteristically quiet December as the World Cup didn't finish until the 18th. This left us with only 2 games which was a bit of a blessing as we had a few players away on international duty come back very jaded.
Well it showed, two very poor performances with the Wolves game being played with our youth goalkeeper due to injuries.
Write that month off and move on.
January 2023
With injuries piling up in Goal we look to youth goalkeeper Owen Goodman for the next two games at least.
Small hurdle of Liverpool first up with games against City and Chelsea if recovery times of the other keepers isn't accurate.
Goodman you beauty! Keeps a clean sheet at home in the biggest game of his career so far. Our biggest result of the season!
Sadly, the rest of the month went to form as we fell to a couple of straight forward defeats.
We have hit a bit of a flat spot in the season with some injuries and tiredness which we need to force our way out of.
Hopefully the introduction of some fresh blood will help with that.
Being January, we dipped a toe into the transfer market and picked up what I believe to be a bargain.
Andreas Schjelderup - Signed for 8.5 mil from FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark he is touted to be the future of Danish football. Let's just hope he can be the future of football at Selhurst Park.
February 2023
The games start rolling in thick and fast as we have so much ground to catch up on. 5 games in this month with some tricky away games. Be pleased with 2 or 3 wins for sure.
Well, it wasn't looking great. The losses to Newcastle and Liverpool I will take, but Southampton at home isn't good enough.
I changed some things up and it paid off as a hard-fought victory at Forest was followed up by a walk over win against Bournemouth. Debut goal for Schjelderup too which put the gloss on the end of the month.
March 2023
Not sure if I am coming or going with these Premier League months as we have another 2-game month. Keeping this run of form going is imperative.
Another loss to Wolves as they do the league double over us, quickly followed by a very onesided affair against Brentford. An Edouard hattrick and goals from Eze, Schjelderup and Andersen saw our London rivals off comfortably.
Youth Intake
When March rolls around we turn our eyes to the yearly youth Intake. In previous saves on this page, we are heavily invested in the Youth Intakes as we are embarking on such a long journey.
This Save isn't going to be as long as others but if someone jumps out at us then we will try our best to get them involved in the first team.
So, let's check out the newbies.
Some half decent potential there which we will look to send out on loan. However, I am very interested in Vincent Colas. Let's take a closer look.
Ok, we could have a player on our hands here. Decision needs to be made if we keep him and develop him here or send him out on loan.
One to keep an eye on.
April 2023
Back to the action and we are back to a full month's schedule. We are in that odd twighlight zone in the league where we are safe from relegation but need a miracle to force our way into the European places.
It's a solid set of results with some very good wins, especially against Arsenal and Everton.
The new look attacking line appear to be gelling well with 12 goals in 5 games which I am delighted about as we look to next season already.
May 2023
May was really a throw away month, no danger of relegation and no chance of advancing up the league. So, I mixed some things up personnel and tactics wise with eyes fully focussed on next season. Not expecting much here.
It was predicted, it was a good learning month and one that I am sure will help us next season.
Final League Table
We were predicted a 14th place finish in the league in the season preview and I guaranteed that we would finish higher than that. I mean, I wasn't wrong but i was expecting a slightly better performance.
Odsonne Edouard needs some huge praise for his performances this season. Finishing runner up to Erling Haaland in the golden boot with 24 goals.
Need more of that next season!
Injuries played a huge factor this season with the odd spacing of the fixtures and the world cup added really ramping up the physical pressure. Check out just the major injuries below.
Cup Competitions
Let's check out how we fared in the domestic cup competitions.
League Cup
Quater finals is a cracking effort and we eventually lost on penalties to a full-strength Man City team.
FA Cup
Quarter finals again as we fall short to an Arsenal side we had beaten twice in the league.
I definitely think we could improve on both of these performances next season.
Season Review
I will leave you with the season review, thank you very much for taking the time to read about of first season. Next season will have a completely different feel to it as we look to make moves in the market.
Cheers
Panda
