Swansea face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday in which is, unfortunately, the last Premier League game of what has been an unbelievable season for the Swans. Before the season started many pundits predicted Swansea to miserably fail under the inexperienced Garry Monk. However, from day one in which we beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, Monk has proved everyone wrong and has kept doing so all season long leading Swansea to eighth place – 10 places above what many predicted us to end the season in. We were joint top of the table until mid-September and despite obviously descending from top-spot, we haven’t left the top half of the table all season. This shows tremendous consistency and we haven’t really endured a proper dip in form all campaign.
Every single player has contributed well, but especially the summer signings of Lukasz Fabianski, Federico Fernandez and Gylfi Sigurdsson (who was close to joining Palace) have been brilliant. Fabianski replaced Michel Vorm who chose first team football for warming Tottenham’s bench, and the Pole has been outstanding! Hence why he picked up Best Newcomer, Away Player of the Year and Players Player of the Year awards mid-meek. Fernandez has been a rock in the defence and the partnership of Ashley Williams and Fernandez is ridiculously strong, and ridiculously underrated. And then there’s Gylfi Sigurdsson who has been immense all season long and has been a joy to watch, scoring some belting goals from midfield.
So for Sunday I’m as confident as ever that Swansea can get a point or three. I hope I’m not appearing as cocky though, but we’re on a good run of form with three wins from four games, which contains the very impressive win against Arsenal at the Emirates. Although, we lost 4-2 to Manchester City last week, it won’t dent Swansea’s confidence one bit as the performance against City was phenomenal. That must sound very odd but that display last week was one of the best team performances of the season and the score line was very generous to City. Normally the players slacken off at this stage of the campaign but Swansea’s has only improved. On Sunday, striker Bafetimbi Gomis will be the focal point of the attack. After the sale of Wilfried Bony, the French international has come on leaps and bounds, scoring five goals in his last five matches. He’s now Swansea’s top scorer despite hardly setting foot on the field before January which is some achievement. The winger of Jefferson Montero will also look to cause problems with his blistering pace and unpredictable trickery. Joel Ward will be in for a tough match against the Ecuadorian on Sunday.
So, enough about Swansea. Crystal Palace have extremely impressed me this season and they’ve been a joy to watch, playing entertaining and attacking football. I’m very fond of the wingers of Yannick Bolasie and Wilfred Zaha and it’s been great watching them two destroy full-backs all season long. Although, I definitely won’t be enjoying it on Sunday! The midfield is also strong with Mile Jedinak, Joe Ledley and Jason Puncheon excellent contributors at Selhurst Park. Despite Gomis being in terrific form, he will come up against a very resolute defence with Scott Dann especially impressing me in the heart of the back-line. And I must say – I agree with many Palace fans that Dann is underrated and he should be in line for an England call-up.
The last time the two sides met, it ended as a 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium. Wilfried Bony scored early on but then Mile Jedinak’s penalty ten minutes after, earned Palace a point on the road. To be honest, that game wasn’t the best of spectacles but Sunday’s promises to be much better with the two sides greatly improved. Palace have vastly moved forward since November’s meeting, as Alan Pardew has done wonders in South London, plus he’s going into the final day on the back of an outstanding 3-1 victory over Liverpool. You always seem to breeze past the Scousers.
Sunday’s encounter is sure to be a great game of football between two entertaining sides. So with that in mind, my final prediction is a 2-2 draw with Bolasie and Murray on the scoreboard, but Gomis and Shelvey netting to knick a draw at Selhurst Park and putting an end to Swansea’s best season in many many years to bed on a high.
