Crystal Palace 1 – 1 Stoke City

James McArthur scores the only goal for Crystal Palace in a scrappy draw as the festive season begins at Selhurst Park.

Before the game, the Eagles’ form had been described as unpredictable with recent results reflecting that and in all honesty the same theme continued as despite a number of chances on goal, none of the chances were taken with only three of Palace’s 11 shots on target leading to a continuing concern on the Eagles’ striking options.

Neil Warnock named an unchanged side from the team that drew at White Hart Lane against Tottenham last Saturday, with the only noticeable change early on being the more advanced role for central midfielder McArthur who was playing more as an attacking midfielder. This paid off early on for Palace as the clubs’ in-form winger Yannick Bolasie hit a cross into the area after a ball from Zaha found McArthur’s head who knocked it into the net and past Begovic who didn’t stand a chance in reaching the floating ball. This was 27-year-old’s first goal for Crystal Palace since joining from Wigan in September, towards the end of the summer transfer window.

92 seconds after Palace’s opener, the Potters made the most of the oppositions’ defenders being out of position as a number of Stoke players infested the box who were waiting a highly anticipated cross from the flanks, where the ball was won earlier on in the move. Peter Crouch was one of those players and he managed to slot the ball past Speroni with a close range shot from a cross which was deflected into the striker’s sight.

After the two goals, the game to be brutally honest could have finished; both sides petered out with possession football becoming the norm of the afternoon. In-form Jonathan Walters did attempt to get the better of Joel Ward on a number of chances throughout the game but the Palace defender managed to deal with the threat comfortably. Most of his threats were after the goals which occurred in the opening exchanges of the game; on a number of occasions, Stoke players tried to get the ball to Walters who had been creating and scoring goals for fun in his last six appearances before his visit to Selhurst Park.

The second half was something to look forward to after the first half showing by both sides but that slowly sunk into disappointment. McArthur had an early chance on goal, playing towards the Holmesdale, but his chance was deflected into the palms of Begovic who made the save look easy. Bolasie had a number of attempts down the wing throughout the second half but the Eagles’ lack of attacking threat was laid bare to see as four shots on goal were either blocked or went off target after McArthur’s effort in the 53rd minute.

It was another disappointing game for the Neil Warnock’s side in a game where more points could have been won and could be a point that could be looked back upon at the end of the season as one where Crystal Palace should have picked up all three points.