Crystal Palace 4 Stoke City 1
Instinct suggests Stoke City boast far too much pedigree to be loitering at the foot of the table for long but, with each thrashing they endure, a sense of crisis is growing. This was a second successive drubbing to the tune of four goals conceded, a rout inflicted by a Crystal Palace team who have been obliging hosts too often in recent times. They were irrepressible and have forced their way into the top half. Stoke, in contrast, shudder with the weight of the division on top of them.
This was grim viewing for Mark Hughes and those visiting supporters. The sight of Wilfried Bony being robbed easily by Damien Delaney as the goal gaped, or Jonathan Walters guiding a simple chance wide late on, was miserable enough. Stoke have scored only three times in the league all season, Marko Arnautovic’s consolation registered with the last kick of the game here. But what was more alarming still was the reality they had been bullied into the early concessions which set the tone and, thereafter, offered little evidence of an ability to recover. Their back-line was ramshackle and confidence horribly brittle throughout.
Both Palace centre-halves were claiming rewards before the quarter-hour mark as the delivery offered by the lively Andros Townsend and Jason Puncheon stretched the visitors to breaking point. It had been Townsend’s free-kick, awarded for Arnautovic’s foul on Wilfried Zaha, which sparked the early panic. The set-piece was looped beyond Shay Given to the far post where James Tomkins, on his first league start for Palace but later injured in first half stoppage time, was free to convert even if Walters, in his desperation to intercept, may have applied the final touch. Tomkins celebrated as if it had been his.
The visitors were still wheezing 134 seconds later when another corner was carelessly shipped, at which Scott Dann, on the charge from deep, was unopposed to thump a trademark header down and in. The defender would be denied another by Bojan’s goal-line clearance after the interval, again from a Puncheon corner. Perhaps Stoke were unnerved by Christian Benteke’s imposing presence, the forward drawing defenders towards him to leave team-mates liberated, though there was a dopiness to Stoke which was inexcusable.
Even when Wilfried Bony capitalised on Dann’s indecision at the other end, the striker could only dribble his shot disappointingly wide. That came midway through the first half and, while the visitors upped their tempo after the interval, Palace should have edged further ahead as Townsend’s whipped centre exposed City’s shortcomings yet again. Zaha attempted to back-heel the loose ball in only for a prone Given to block, with Stoke’s defence heaving to contain the threat. They would be breached again before the end as the visitors collapsed.
The ease at which Palace prospered was astonishing. Another Arnautovic foul, this time on Townsend, provided a free-kick whipped in yet again by Puncheon. The ball eventually found itself to James McArthur on the far side of the box, with the Scot permitted to cut inside and whip in a shot which flicked off Geoff Cameron and in. The celebrations had barely died down when broke down-field at pace and Townsend skimmed his first goal for the club into the far corner from 20 yards. This was the third time in four league games this term that Stoke have been breached four times, and Arnautovic’s late riposte meant little. Hughes, his face like thunder, surveyed the wreckage as a lonely figure in his technical area.
(Guardian service)
