Following on from the midweek thrashing at Newcastle United, it was another barren afternoon for Crystal Palace attackers on Saturday.
But the circumstances of this latest blank were considerably different, with the Eagles forced to play over half of the match with 10 men.
While there was little goalmouth action to report on from Selhurst Park, there were some key Fantasy talking points to dissect.
GLASNER EXPLAINS HALF-TIME EZE SUB
After a minus score on Wednesday, Eberechi Eze (£6.9m) emerged from Saturday’s stalemate in south London with just a one-pointer.
The midfielder failed to appear for the second half at Selhurst Park, with Jefferson Lerma (£4.8m) on in his place.
The good news for his owners in FPL: there’s no injury.
Palace had been reduced to 10 men just before the interval thanks to Chris Richards‘ (£4.4m) dismissal for two bookable offences.
Just as he had done at the Etihad a week ago, Oliver Glasner made a half-time change to attempt to shore things up – and it was Eze who was the sacrificial lamb this time.
“Yes, of course, it was just a tactical sub at half time.
“When you expect to be a little bit deep then you are thinking which players can make these runs also to the back, then of course it’s clear with JP [Mateta], it’s clear with Ismaila, it’s clear with Dani Munoz, we had many of our attacks from the right side.
“That was the only reason why we made this sub. It was to be compact in our defence but having these players who can also get the game into their half, get the game into their box.
“Of course, set-plays is a huge topic and with JP’s head, with Ismaila Sarr’s head, we need them on the pitch.” – Oliver Glasner on Eberechi Eze’s substitution
Richards now sits out the second of Palace’s two Gameweek 33 fixtures.
GLASNER ON HIS MIDWEEK TEAM SELECTION
That second Gameweek 33 match is away at Arsenal on Wednesday. It’s a fixture that comes less than 72 hours before Palace’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa, so it’ll be interesting to see what Glasner does with his team selection.
To date, and bar some tinkering in central midfield, he’s largely resisted rotation even in hectic periods. But Wednesday will be game four of five that the Eagles have to contest in the space of a fortnight, and the FA Cup semi-final is pretty much all Palace have left to play for this season.
Without fully committing to rotation, Glasner admitted that he’ll have one eye on Villa.
“We look pretty fit, the players showed it and so I don’t think we are really having big concerns.
“We will go there like always, and this is what I want, we don’t present them the three points on the table and say, ‘Okay, we are waving the white flag’.
“Of course, we are considering the Aston Villa game but this is what we always do. Jeff Lerma didn’t play today because he had many minutes in the last weeks.
“So we will have a very competitive team there at the Emirates and three days later at Wembley against Villa as well.” – Oliver Glasner on what he will do in midweek
CHANCES FEW AND FAR BETWEEN
But for the red card controversy (Palace were down to 10 men not long after Bournemouth could have been), there was absolutely nothing memorable about this game. “Fortunate to get nil” was the Sky Sports commentator’s summary on the full-time whistle.
The better opportunities didn’t even result in proper shots.
Dean Huijsen (£4.5m) had the clearest opening but, in a sign of things to come, the ball simply bounced off the Spanish centre-half when reaching him at close range.
Evanilson (£5.8m) failed to gamble on a teasing Dango Ouattara (£4.7m) cross, Milos Kerkez (£5.3m) just couldn’t reach a flicked Evanilson header, and Daniel Munoz (£5.3m) failed to get good contact when attempting to backheel an Ismaila Sarr (£5.8m) cross in.
The typically advanced Munoz had earlier sent in a devilish cross that Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.8m) couldn’t get a meaningful touch on, although the offside flag was up anyway.
Above: Munoz’s shot on Saturday was his eighth from inside the six-yard box in 2024/25 – no Palace player has had more
Richards’ dismissal was mitigation for Palace’s second-half backs-to-the-wall display but in truth, they posed very little threat before that anyway, failing to register a single shot on target. Perhaps the congested schedule and the lack of rotation are catching up with them.
At least the clean sheet was a nice reset after conceding 10 goals in Gameweek 32.
KLUIVERT RETURNS
Bournemouth had 15 attempts on Saturday but given that their total StatsBomb xG was 0.62, you don’t need us to tell you that they were mostly speculative efforts.
The front three of Ouattara, Evanilson and Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) each had three shots, with Semenyo’s characteristically wayward 94th-minute effort summing up the feeble collective effort.
There was at least a boost for the Cherries with the return of Justin Kluivert (£6.0m). Fit for the first time this month, the Dutchman even got through 90 minutes at Selhurst Park.
“Actually [back] very quick compared to what we maybe thought it could be, I’m very thankful. I’m very happy that I feel good.” – Justin Kluivert
