Phew. Thank goodness for that!!!

Another goal was really needed.

Saka!!! That has to be the three points

Phew ...we'll do well to get a win here , they are giving us a real examination

I knew that would inspire us

2-0! Own goal

So so so needed

Yes!!

Good to see Tierney back on the pitch again.

And great singing for Vieira.

And Saliba gets MOTM award on his Premier League debut.

Saliba man of the match?

Truly excellent result in a banana skin opening fixture.

Three good points away from home. Good job.

This is so *%^@*** sweet!!!!!
Zaha you c a n t!
We were under the cosh for a bit boy did we need that second!!!
Saliba was bloody excellent. What a performance.

Hard fought victory against a very difficult team in the end. The first 30 minutes encapsulated everything with how we want to play, and I feel a lot of our problems are on the mental side of things. You could see it as soon as we scored and immediately dropped down a level; lower energy, we didn't press them enough, struggled to keep control of the ball. It looked like we were more worried about protecting the lead than scoring another. This is something you don't see with Liverpool and Man City, when they score they just keep going with the same intensity, and I'm waiting for this to click for our players too and for them to realize that we're the much better team and if we just keep playing the way we want to play we'll dictate the game and they'll struggle to contain us.

But three big points to start the season, I like being able to watch the rest of the matches knowing we've done our job and it's up to our rivals to keep up.

We started electric!!!!
Then palace came back into it but we held firm and got thr break of the 2nd goal.
We deserved that and sweet revenge for that 3 0 in April.
I cannot stand zaha.
That permanent annoying scowl on his face and such a thorn in our side for too many games
Jesus ,zinchenko are going to be brilliant signings.
Ramsdale made 2 excellent saves but has to cut out the dawdling on the ball.
Could cost us and unnecessarily spreads nervousness.
. Great to start with 3 points. Bloody.great!!!

Yay!
Winning start
Clean sheet
Onwards we go!

Man of the Match

Palace had something like the 5th best home record in the league last year. I’m sure palace will take points off some of the other top 6 sides at home this season.

Away wins in this league really are like gold dust.

Bit scrappy in the end but that first 30 minutes showed what we can do. Really pleased with the clean sheet as well, important for the team to build those clean sheets and not give away easy goals even when the game is won.

Great result. Fantastic first half an hour.

After that we completely lost control of the game which was very disappointing. That happened too many times last season. Not sure why it happens but we need to find an answer if we want to do anything this season. Maybe we could have brought on Lokonga.

Saliba was excellent, Ramsdale made a couple of superb saves. Jesus was dazzling for half and hour and had a very good game overall.

Some may disagree but I thought White was poor and Ødegaard was awful. His inability to find a man when under pressure (normally his strong point) gifted Palace possession too many times.

Zinny was exposed a bit defensively and I thought things improved greatly when Tierney came on.

This really is a great part of winning the first game of the weekend. Sit back and relax and enjoy the struggles of others.

Also with these scrappy wins you know our rivals fans would have built up huge hopes for that Palace equaliser at the end and they’ll be gutted

I thought Conor Gallagher was Palace best player last season and I wondered how they'd do without him. Doucoure looks like a very good signing though, thought he was excellent today.

Agree that Ødegaard was poor, but I thought White had a fine performance. He's not a natural right back and was up against one of the most dangerous 1v1 players in the league, did very well under those circumstances in my opinion.

I think we need to bring in that extra CM so we can have more options to wrestle back control of games when we lose it, like for the last hour tonight.

There must be a strong, imposing CM out there who can add something extra to our game in tough away matches.

I also think we could have been better tactically. Anderson was hitting raking passes to set up Palace attacks and was the cause of so many problems so why not push a forward up on him to stop him getting on the ball, or at least having time to hit those passes. Stop the supply at source.

With the players we currently have available, maybe we should try Zinchenko in midfield with Tierney at left back? Tierney is better defensively and much better 1v1, but Zinchenko offers more on the ball. We struggled a bit with possession today, Zinchenko could be very useful in that regard.

Love a bit of 3 points to start the season. Gritty win. Saliba looks like a really good player, with an uncanny physical likeness to Anelka but about 10% bigger all over.

But my takes from the game were:

Ben White is a good lad, but no right back.

Manu Petit and Pat (obvs) were both at the game last night. Our midfield is approximately 1 light year away from what those 2 gave us. We need to sort that area out.

I sometimes think that whilst Tets and his phalanx of assistants are great at the attention to detail stuff (that bloke with the specs was never out of his ear all night, constant chatter, shut up mate!) and the style of play they want us to do, wasn't it just flaming obvious that we just needed to have Jesus or Gabby hassle Andersen really tightly to stop him hitting those long passes over the top of our full backs ALL NIGHT LONG?

Hi Haz,

I think that could work. We could have maybe brought Tierney on and pushed Zinny into midfield alongside Partey and Xhaka.

Gidday Soc .... I too thought White was a bit flaky but then in his defence ; Zaha when he decides to turn up can cause anyone a lot of problems .

Palace I thought epitomised Vieira's own playing style , very combative which isn't Ødegaard's strong suit .

Mystifying why Martinelli attempted that arse backwards left foot scuff in the first couple of minutes when it was screaming for one of his trademark right foot .
curlers .
What [ if anything ] goes on in Xhaka's head ; make the most obvious dive .... get booked then go on and on vehemently protesting his innocence ... strange character

That salmon coloured jersey is bloody awful .

By the way, Jesus is a sensational player. Give him enough of the ball and he will trouble any defence anywhere.

Hello kiwi,

You're right (for once) Zaha is a handful and White is not a natural RB so maybe I was a bit harsh.

Saliba’s composure was reminiscent of Sol at the club.

Saliba's performance makes the decision to send him out on loan even more perplexing. Either he went on loan and gained the requisite skills to be good enough or it was already there and some non footbaling reason sent him off.

Don't bash yourself around too much , doesn't hurt to have someone on the forum like yourself a bit more of a pessimist / realist / pragmatist however you want to call it ;
rather than joining the crowd ordering the Brass Bands and ticker tape thinking because of the addition of Jesus and Zinchenko we are going to be champions .

The way Palace dominated us for in the twenty five minutes before half time was a bit of a reality check . If they had scored [ and they should have ]
from that header we could have had a very nervy second half ..

Vital we got the win but it shows the grind of real McCoy Premier League games are a whole lot different from the pre season romps in the sun

What we need at the moment is the French Vieira not the Portuguese version

Missed the game because I’m on me hols but that is a brilliant result. Any win will do first game. Literally any 3 points.

I did see the post match interview with Mikel though . I have to say it’s just brilliant how intense he is, almost to a point he puts Neville and carragher at an unease.

https://youtu.be/HDpHpO6uuWA

Interesting that he says there’s a few things we want to do in the transfer market. More than 1 maybe ?

I’ve said before Jesus and Nketiah will not be enough forwards for all the games we’ll have this season. It just isn’t. The idea that having two players to cover at least one position (I bet Jesus and Nketiah will both be on the pitch together if we’re ever chasing a goal) up to 65 games is in my view verging on ludicrous.

Ben is a great passing CB, why not try a Saliba/Gabriel central defense and Ben at defensive center mid?

I must admit I’m never a fan of pushing ball playing defenders in to defensive midfield. I can’t think of many players who make that a successful transition. The position is totally different, the time you get on the ball is massively reduced compared to in defence.

Meant to say before: really liked the pink jersey.

I think it’s more the former, he really hadn’t played that much top level football before going to Marseille, and certainly not any football at a big club where the pressure of different. Marseille was perfect for him, they expect to win every game they want to domintae the ball. But it’s still ‘only’ the French league.

A few more starts and performances like that will hopefully help him sign a new contract

White made the most tackles and won the most duels of everyone on the pitch yesterday. It was probably inevitable that Zaha would beat him a few times as he will every full back in the league but I think White dealt with him pretty well all things considered. Zaha has been a thorn in our side too many times before.

It seemed that Nketiah did that when he came on, he got to Anderson a lot quicker. Pressing defenders is interesting, some may press the weaker ball playing defender because you’ll make him make a mistake but the better tactic is let the weaker guy have the ball and just cut off all his options with your press….and he’ll make a mistake that way.