Adam Sells’ takeaways from Crystal Palace’s 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa – Inexplicable penalty call as injuries start to bite the Eagles

Crystal Palace suffered a 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.

Here are Adam Sells’ takeaways from Villa Park:

A TOUGH ONE TO TAKE

Palace came away from Villa Park licking their wounds after a hard-fought encounter. 

At times, it would have been fair to describe the performance as ‘heroic’ given the shift the players put in. Last-ditch blocks and tackles a plenty, there is little doubt that the players left it all out there.

There were many positives to take from the game, but ultimately, the Eagles returned to SE25 pointless after a controversial end to the game with referee Darren England taking centre stage.

Missing Roy Hodgson’s wisdom and leadership, together with six injured players, Palace were always going to be up against it at the home of their big-spending hosts.

But fans, players and staff all returned south feeling more than a little hard done by.

DARREN’S DUBIOUS DECISION

Back to referee Darren England, who made an inexplicable penalty call which decided the outcome.

England took five minutes, after VAR intervened, only to stick with his original decision, which seemed impossible to understand given the evidence presented.

Whereas it seemed understandable in real time to award the penalty kick, to then stick with his initial instinct was unfathomable.

Palace’s American defender recovered superbly to take the ball, not once, but twice, only for England to ignore his VAR colleague and Douglas Luiz to net with ninety-eight minutes on the clock.

Howard Webb and the PGMOL may well be making a call this week apologising for England’s error, who, as a result, may not be blowing his whistle in the Premier League next weekend.

Palace were not the only victims of some dubious refereeing this weekend and the standard of officiating in the biggest league in the world appears to be at an all-time low.

PALACE AT THE MAXIMUM

Tired bodies were a telling factor as the game wore on and the lack of experienced attacking options on the bench was glaringly evident.

The squad, particularly from an attacking perspective, is woefully short in both quality and numbers.

Without Matheus Franca and Michael Olise and with no real cover or competition for the exciting duo, Palace were up against it before a ball was kicked. With Jordan Ayew injured early on, acting boss Paddy McCarthy was forced into an early change to his further depleted group.

The real positive thus far is how much Palace have managed to get out of the aforementioned Ayew, plus Odsonne Edouard, who netted again, and Jean-Philippe Mateta.

There is no doubt that all three are showing their best form of their Palace careers and they’ve needed to, given the lack of options.

The lack of choice in wide areas will almost prove the biggest hurdle in Palace being able to improve on last year’s finish, particularly when the strikers are starting to hit the back of the net so regularly.

Both Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Malcolm Ebowei have bright futures but are unlikely to be used too often now unless Palace are chasing a game or when holding a comfortable lead in order to gain valuable experience.

The lack of incomings meant that both have missed out on regular first-team football elsewhere during this period.

INJURIES STARTING TO BITE

With injuries ruling out, Nathan Ferguson, Marc Guehi, James Tomkins, Jefferson Lerma, plus the previously mentioned Olise and Franca and now perhaps Ayew, Hodgson will be hoping for a combination of good luck and good news from the Treatment Room this week.

Palace have just nineteen outfield players within their 25-man Premier League squad, including the long-term injured Ferguson. There are five players under 21 players, including another goalkeeper, Joe Whitworth, who has appeared in the top flight, plus the new signing Franca.

Whitworth has two appearances, with the rest having just one between them thus far.

It seems that they are going to be heavily reliant on those being able to step up and have a great deal of luck with injuries to senior players between now and January when further international calls for the AFCON 2024 tournament will further reduce options.

In reality, there are a few occasions when you are not missing four or five players and it remains to be seen whether the squad is built for the rigours of a Premier League season.