What. A. Game. Who would have thought that a game against 19th placed Swansea City and 16th placed crystal palace would have ended 5-4. With a Fernando Llorente brace in added time sealing the win for the Swans late on. Crystal Palace have done themselves no favours continuing a run of now six consecutive defeats, after being named the worst team in England in 2016, ten days prior.
Llorente The Hero
Fernando Llorente has not scored for Swansea since the 3-1 defeat against Manchester City in September. What a time to end a drought of three games, to single handedly win a match that was 4-3 in Palace's favour going into the final minutes of the match.
I mean right now I don't have much love for the guy as I had the game to end as a draw on my accumulator, but Swansea fans will be loving him right now. The 6ft 1" Spanish striker signed last summer from Seville and seemed quite the coup for the Welsh side, but age seems to be hindering Llorente as before this match he had only managed one goal so far this season. But Llorente rolled back the years as two goals after the end of regulation time decided a match that will undoubtedly be known as one of the games of the season if not 'the' game of the Premier League season. Joining the likes of last seasons 5-4 Liverpool win against Norwich and Arsenal and Newcastle's 4-4 draw in 2011. This game was a matter of attack against attack and to be honest, the defence of both teams was shocking but no credit can be taken away from Llorente who decided a game in the closing minutes of the game.
Worst team of 2016
This was the title that Crystal Palace were infamously awarded following a run of five defeats prior to the meeting at the Liberty Stadium now extending to six. For a team that narrowly lost the FA Cup final in May due to a Jesse Lingard goal, things have went rapidly downhill for the London based club and it's not hard to see why.
Fair enough they lost Bolasie to Everton but they did spend big on marquee signing Christian Benteke, along with Tomkins and Andros Townsend. I thought that Palace pulled off a miracle in convincing Steve Mandanda to trade Marseille for Selhurt Park but now it's starting to become increasingly more evident why the French club allowed the Frenchman to leave in the summer.
The Eagle's attacking options are solid with Zaha, Benteke and Townsend form a front three but like this match, it is defence in which their problems lie. When you score four goals in a game you expect to win, but when you are conceding five in the other end there is a serious problem. This is now the fourth time they have conceded more than three goals in a game and they have lost everyone. They were 3-1 down at the 75th minute and had to rely on an own goal to draw level, there is a growing sense of panic now growing at Selhurst Park. The addition of James Tomkins hasn't aided the problem and now if Pardew is still at the helm come January, he is going to need to bolster that defence if he doesn't want to find himself in a relegation battle come May.
