Crystal Palace’s recent return to form has gone slightly under the radar, but 11 months into his time as head coach. the signs suggest that Oliver Glasner could be the man to take the club to a new level.
Some Crystal Palace fans would have been worried after eight games of this season. Just three points had been collected, and Palace were one of four Premier League teams yet to win a game.
The south London side lost their first game back after the October international break – a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in a game which had appeared the perfect opportunity to get their first win on the board.
Their start to this campaign was a far cry from how they finished the last, when they dropped just two points in a seven-game unbeaten streak to end 2023-24 in style (W6 D1 L0). This season, however, not only did the results concern Palace supporters, they’d already lost the influential Michael Olise to Bayern Munich in the summer, while the only player to start every Premier League game for them in 2023-24, Joachim Andersen, was allowed to go to Fulham.
Those worries have since dissipated, though, following an excellent return to action following the international break in November. In 11 league games since then, Palace have lost only once (W5 D5) and picked up 20 points – fewer than only five teams in the whole division.
Overall, it must be said that Oliver Glasner has done a great job as Palace head coach. Since taking charge of his first game at the club on 24 February 2024, they’ve won 51 points in 35 Premier League matches. That’s three games shy of replicating a complete 38-game season in the competition, and their 51 points are already more than in any of the 15 seasons that Palace have been a Premier League club.
Now, with 27 points on the board in 2024-25, Palace have made a better start than in any of the last three seasons, while their seven defeats after 22 games is their joint lowest in a Premier League campaign.
Hard Work Pays Off
Palace aren’t a team who prioritise keeping possession for long periods of time. So far this season, their average possession figure of 43.5% is the fourth lowest in the competition, while they average just 311.1 successful passes per game (fifth fewest).
But in a similar vein to Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth – two other teams who aren’t particularly concerned with high possession figures but have had brilliant campaigns so far – they work hard off the ball with intense pressing and display high fitness levels with their running out of possession.
Palace top the Premier League rankings for total pressures (4,980) and pressures in the middle third of the pitch (2,637) this season, while they are also the top team for turnovers in possession after a pressure both overall (669) and in the middle third of the pitch (289).
Unlike Bournemouth, who press higher up the pitch than Palace – their average open-play possessions start 2.2m deeper than the Cherries – Glasner’s side are comfortable sitting deeper and looking to get in behind the opponsition’s defence with the pace of their attackers.
Palace’s trio of Ismaïla Sarr (342), Jean-Philippe Mateta (323) and Eberechi Eze (304) are all in the top six players in the Premier League this season for pressures in the middle third of the pitch, working hard to win the ball back from opponents and spring attacks from around the halfway line.
It would be lazy to call Palace purely a counter-attacking team because they are more than just that, but they do like to attack opponents quickly in transition.
Only Forest (2.08 metres/second), Bournemouth (2.07) and Everton (1.90) progress play upfield in open-play sequences faster than Palace (1.87), while Palace’s average open-play sequence time of 8.2 seconds is higher only Forest than (7.5) and Everton (8.0) this season.
Overall, they rank seventh for the proportion of their shots that come in transition (35.2%) – defined as when the opposition have recently lost the ball and not had time to reorganise their defensive shape before Palace attempt a shot.
Already a Season of Two Halves
By the November international break, Palace had won just one of their first 11 games of the Premier League season; a 1-0 victory at Selhurst Park over Tottenham. At that stage, they sat in the relegation zone with just seven points, but just as worrying was their lack of goals.
They’d scored just eight times in 11 games, which was more than only bottom side Southampton (7) and the same tally as they’d managed in the final two games of 2023-24. Palace ended last season in exceptional form in front of goal, beating Manchester United 4-0 before further wins over Wolves (3-1) and Aston Villa (5-0) sent their fans into the summer with high expectations for 2024-25.
Olise was involved in five of Palace’s 12 goals in that three-game period, and with the Frenchman gone, worries about a lack of attacking threat seemed justified.
Palace’s first game back from that November break saw them travel to Aston Villa where Ismaïla Sarr, one of the attacking players brought in to replace Olise, finally came to life after going without a goal or assist in the 11 Premier League games before then.
A fourth-minute goal was followed later in the first half by Sarr’s lung-busting run from inside his own half ahead of assisting Justin Devenny’s strike. These were Sarr’s first two goal involvements in the Premier League for Palace, with five more following since (three goals, two assists) including a brace in an impressive 3-1 win at rivals Brighton in December.
Those two goals at Villa Park saw Palace take the lead twice, something that Palace have done a lot more frequently in their last 11 games compared to their first 11.
For a team that attacks with pace, exploiting space left behind opposition defences, holding a lead and enticing opponents out of shape to take risks is important for Palace. Therefore, opening the scoring in six of their 11 games since the November break – compared to three before it – has helped them improve results.
Overall, Palace have been in a leading position for 32.4% of match time across their last 11 Premier League games. In their first 11, that proportion was just 10.9%.
Admittedly, three of Palace’s five wins since mid-November have come against the current bottom three sides, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton. But the other wins over Brighton and West Ham have shown their quality, while points collected at home to Manchester City and Chelsea would probably have been points squandered without the recent improvement in their performances.
The Threat of Mateta
A big factor – quite literally – in Palace’s strong form under Glasner’s management has been striker Jean-Phillppe Mateta.
The 6-foot-4 Frenchman has scored 21 goals in 35 Premier League appearances since Glasner’s first game in charge, a tally that only Erling Haaland (27), Alexander Isak (26) and Cole Palmer (26) have bettered. He’s even matched Mohamed Salah’s output in front of goal over that period (21).
This is Mateta’s best spell at any top-flight club in his career, not only scoring more goals under Glasner than any previous manager but converting a higher proportion of his shots (29.6%) and averaging a better minutes-per-goal ratio than ever before under a single coach (130).
Before Glasner’s arrival, Mateta had struggled to force his way into a regular starting berth at Palace. Under Patrick Vieira, Mateta was used mainly as an impact substitute, with 57% of his league appearances coming from the bench, while that rate was even higher under Roy Hodgson (63%). But Glasner has seen his worth and he now forms an integral part of his Palace setup – only two of his 35 appearances have been as a sub.
Since Glasner’s arrival, Mateta’s attacking output is astoundingly similar to that of Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood. Both players have scored 18 non-penalty goals in the Premier League since 24 February 2024 (Glasner’s first game), they average the same number of non-pen shots per 90 (2.2) and average the same quality non-pen shots (0.20 xG per shot). Even their non-pen xG per 90 has just 0.01 difference per 90 (Mateta: 0.44, Wood: 0.43).
Maybe some of the adulation for Wood this season has been heightened due to Forest’s phenomenal campaign, but Mateta arguably deserves as much credit.
The 27-year-old started the season slowly, scoring in just three of his first 19 appearances in 2024-25 (four goals), but has now scored as many in his last three games.
That slow start could in part be attributed to a lack of pre-season and a busy summer schedule. Mateta competed at the 2024 Olympics for France as they reached the final. He played in all six of their matches and finished as their top scorer at the tournament (five goals). Unhelpfully for Palace, the final was played just nine days before their season opener at Brentford on 18 August.
Fatigue could have been a factor behind his slow start, but based on his form in January, that sharpness seems to have returned.
Defensive Consistency
While Mateta’s return to form in 2025 has helped Palace turn their season around after a slow start, Glasner has been somewhat fortunate with injuries and the ability to pick a consistent matchday squad.
Since the return of Premier League action following the November international break, their head coach has made just 17 changes to the starting XI in 11 league matches – only Everton (13) and Newcastle (14) have made fewer across this period. In the opening 11 games to 2024-25, Glasner made a total of 24 changes to his starting XI, which was the fourth most in the Premier League.
The consistency in their defensive selection has helped. Goalkeeper Dean Henderson hasn’t missed a single minute of action in the Premier League in 2024-25, the integral Marc Guéhi has missed only 90 minutes at centre-back, and wing-backs Tyrick Mitchell (63 mins missed) and Daniel Muñoz (173 mins missed) have been consistent figures in the side. After signing from Wolfsburg, where he played 30 Bundesliga games under Glasner, in the summer, Maxence Lacroix has started alongside Guéhi in a three-man central defence in 17 of their 22 league games.
They have, however, suffered a recent blow with Trevoh Chalobah recalled from his loan by Chelsea. They have also been without last season’s breakout star Adam Wharton for much of the campaign through injury, with the former Blackburn midfielder playing just eight times in the Premier League this season.
Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 shape uses wing-backs to get up and down the pitch and support in both defence and attack. No side has deployed wing-backs more often than Palace in 2024-25.
Mitchell and Muñoz have been excellent for Palace, and their energy on either wing has been another factor in the team’s excellent off-the-ball work. Both players feature in the top 10 for distance run by players in the Premier League this season (Muñoz: 219.8km, Mitchell: 218.7km), while Muñoz has made the third-most sprints (512) and Mitchell the ninth-most (441).
A lot of Palace’s creative threat comes from their wing-backs, too. They lead the squad rankings for open-play chances created (Muñoz: 26, Mitchell: 25) ahead of Sarr (24) and Eze (23), while they have fired in 111 open-play crosses between them – 42% of Palace’s total.
It’s not much of a surprise to see the pair as the leading chance creators and crossers at the club considering how high up the pitch they get. Only Man City’s full-backs/wing-backs have averaged touches higher up the pitch (58.2m) than Palace’s (57.4m) this season, with Muñoz in particular allowed to roam forward. No right-sided defender has averaged touches higher up the pitch than he has in 2024-25 (58.8m from his own goal).
The Next Step
Most people point to the likes of Brighton and Brentford as the model to follow for Championship clubs with aspirations of becoming a consistent force in the Premier League, but Crystal Palace are often unfairly ignored.
Their promotion from the Championship in 2012-13 following play-off final success against Watford came somewhat unexpectedly following four successive campaigns of finishing 15th or lower in the second tier. But they adapted to life as a Premier League club well following their eight-year absence and are now in their 12th successive season in the top flight.
They have finished between 10th and 15th in each of their last 11 seasons in the Premier League, but they have now improved their final position in three successive campaigns, equalling their best-ever points tally in a Premier League campaign last season (49).
Now, the challenge for Palace is whether they can go to the next level and consistently finish in the top half and challenge for Europe.
Next month will bring up the one-year anniversary of Glasner’s appointment. Based on his time at the club so far, there’s a good chance he is the man who can take them into uncharted territory.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You can also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
