A Premier League Decade: 2019/20

Club

28 Jun 2023

To mark Palace’s decade in the Premier League – a record for the club in the top-flight – we’re looking back on each of our campaigns in detail before the beginning of the next chapter…

The Eagles will begin the 23/24 campaign with an away match against newly-promoted Sheffield United on Saturday, 12th August, before welcoming Arsenal to Selhurst Park on Saturday, 19th August.

Ahead of domestic football’s return, let’s look back at some of Palace’s finest hours – with the latest one of the Premier League’s strangest ever seasons…

Part One: 2013/14
Part Two: 2014/15
Part Three: 2015/16
Part Four: 2016/17
Part Five: 2017/18
Part Six: 2018/19

Straight out of the blocks

Having lost Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United for a club record fee, Palace brought in experienced defender Gary Cahill, as well as midfielder James McCarthy and forward Jordan Ayew to add strength in every area of the pitch.

It helped the Eagles hit the ground running, earning a remarkable first victory of the season at Old Trafford as Patrick van Aanholt scored a 93rd minute winner to send the travelling fans into raptures.

A series of positive results followed, and Hodgson’s side found themselves sitting in sixth having played 10 games, coming back from two goals down at the Emirates to emphasise their improvement.

Christmas crackers

A tough run of fixtures around the festive period failed to halt Palace’s momentum, exemplified by a wonderful Boxing Day winner from Jordan Ayew. Entering stoppage time at Selhurst Park against West Ham United, he twisted past three defenders and dinked the ball over the despairing goalkeeper to secure all three points.

Back-to-back draws against Arsenal and Manchester City added valuable points, and by mid-January Palace were comfortable in ninth.

Three straight defeats damaged an unlikely bid for European football, before three wins on the trot brought Palace back within contention – with nine games to go they were just four points behind Man Utd in fifth place.

Then, everything changed…

The new normal

When the crowd filtered out of Selhurst Park after Palace’s victory over Watford in March, little did they know that they would not return for more than a year.

Suddenly, the world shut down. The COVID pandemic saw football suspended for three months. Players kept fit in isolation, and bigger priorities took precedence.

In June, enough precautions were in place for the Premier League to return, and Palace were back to winning ways with a comfortable victory against Bournemouth.

The peculiarities of lockdown led to some unique innovations, simulated crowd noises chief amongst them – and an extraordinary number of fans tuned in, with the game shown live on the BBC. It was the first Premier League game to be shown on the national broadcaster, and the first top-flight game live on the BBC since 1988.

Palace were within touching distance of a European place, but a tough run of fixtures in the run-in led to a series of defeats at the worst possible time, and it wasn’t to be. Nonetheless, Premier League safety had been comfortably secured with the minimum of fuss.

The stats

Position: 14th
Top scorer: Jordan Ayew (9)
Most appearances: Wilfried Zaha (38)
Clean sheets: Vicente Guaita (10)

Club
First-team

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