Palace suffered an embarrassing defeat at home to Sunderland but what did we learn from the defeat? Here are 5 things...

This is rock bottom…or is it?

It feels like this isn’t the first time we’ve said this is ‘rock bottom’ this season and the way things are going it feels like maybe it won’t be the last. But losing 4-0 at home to the division’s worst side (who hadn’t kept an away clean sheet all season) is seriously poor.

Palace still have time to turn things around this season, plenty of time in fact, but the confidence blow of such a terrible result could be the biggest factor.

@FYPFanzine 55 years of watching Palace 1st time I've ever left at half time. No passion no pride no good!

— Ian Mudge (@IanMudge) February 4, 2017

We should be bolder at home

Tuesday night’s win at Bournemouth was superb and the 3-5-2 worked perfectly but at home to a struggling Sunderland side the formation should have been more attacking.

A 4-4-2 might have put Palace on the front foot more. Instead they struggled to muster chances and Sunderland grew in confidence. After going one down Palace had a couple of opportunities but it still wasn’t good enough and they were then always chasing the game.

An attacking start against the Black Cats and early goals and the 4-0 could have been the other way round.

Team spirit has gone

Even when things were a mess under Ian Holloway and Neil Warnock, there was a team spirit amongst the players that you know if the manager could tap into, could prove vital in brining the group together to recover.

Now that spirit has gone.

There are no leaders in this team. No Mile Jedinaks to drag the squad out of the mire. You can have all the talent but if you have no desire it’s worthless.

You could argue Damien Delaney is a leader but he went off at half-time today after being abused by a fan on the pitch during the break. You wouldn’t blame him for giving up after that.

Some fans need to stop behaving like dicks

We’ve been here before with Palace and we’ll be here again and while it’s fine to criticise the team there is a line. Literally. It’s the hoardings around the pitch.

Some fans encroached today to get in Delaney’s face as previously mentioned at half-time and again at full-time to berate the players. That’s just dickish behaviour and fans like that leave Selhurst and never come back.

Criticise online by all means, boo from the stands, but don’t go on the pitch and do that. It makes the club look bad, it makes the fans look bad and is just pathetic.

Although kudos to the fans who sang “You’re going down with the Palace” to the Sunderland fans. You can say a lot about most Eagles supporters but you can’t say they don’t have a sense of humour.

Damien Delaney looks like he's arguing with himself from the future about this result. pic.twitter.com/DNxKLuOrvV

— •S•T•B•P•V•B•N• (@ssschtevvv) February 4, 2017

Despite all that, we can still stay up

Having said all of the above, there is a long way to go. Palace are second bottom but only two points from safety. There are 14 games to go and some very winnable matches coming up.

There are also new signings Mamadou Sakho and Luka Milivojevic to come into the side and try to impress.

But the manner of today’s defeat will hurt the club the most and confidence will be at an all-time low. Over to you Sam Allardyce…

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Another week, another defeat. And another at Selhust. Palace went down 1-0 at home to Everton to make it five league games without a win since Sam Allardyce was appointed.

The defeat saw the Eagles slip into the bottom three on a freezing cold afternoon in South London where there wasn’t much on the pitch to get Palace fans warmed up about.

But what did we learn? Here are 5 things we noticed…

Benteke still needs to do more

We said it last week and we’re saying it again. Palace’s record signing simply isn’t influencing games as much as he should (and we’re sure as much as he would like to).

Apart from being very unfortunate to hit the bar early on the big Belgian didn’t do much as as Palace’s early pressure quickly dissipated in the second half and Everton came into the match.

At times he looks uninterested and at others a frustrated figure but Allardyce needs to find a way to get the best out of him, and quick.

Shearer hates Palace

Whether he still harbours a grudge after being turns down for the Palace job a few years ago or he just doesn’t like South London, but for some reason Alan Shearer really seems to have it in for the Eagles.

Not content with hammering Allardyce’s men on Match of the Day this weekend (a regular occurrence it should be said) the legendary Newcastle striker then took to Twitter to slam the Eagles some more, including a tweet where he said they were ‘shit for large parts of the game’ which is demonstrably not true. Palace were probably the better team for most of the first half but ran out of steam and ideas after the break.

Shearer has a thing against Palace at the moment which renders any of his supposed unpartisan coverage on television completely untrustworthy.

Stop looking for excuses man. You were shit yesterday for large parts of the game and deserved to be beaten. #moveontonextgame https://t.co/K4HKM5frIj

— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) January 22, 2017

3-5-2 could actually work

Allardyce made a big change to Palace’s tactics on Saturday; switching to a three at the back of Scott Dann, Damien Delaney and James Tomkins with Jeffrey Schlupp and Joel Ward as wing backs.

And you know what? It looked promising. Schlupp was good down the left, looking adventurous going forward (picking up an injury after one of a handful of bursting runs into the box that led to Everton’s goal, despite the ball going out of pay twice and referee Anthony Taylor having ample opportunity to stop play and allow treatment)

Logic Remy was partnered with Benteke up front and looked bright too, before being taken off for Chung Yong-lee during the second half after fading through an apparent lack of match fitness.

As with a lot of games this season Palace seemed to tire in the second half and run out of ideas and Allardyce needs to address that, whatever the formation is.

Schlupp looks promising

It was the £12m arrival’s first start for Palace and he impressed. Possessing plenty of pace the Ghana international was able to get forward to support attacks as well as cover back defensively comfortably.

Hopefully that injury sustained just before Everton’s goal isn’t too bad because the new signing looked very promising at left-wing-back.

We are in serious trouble

Palace finally dropped into the bottom three this weekend after flirting with it for the last few months. Swansea’s shock win at Anfield saw them leapfrog the Eagles before kick-off and another win left Palace in 18th spot. Defeats for Hull and Sunderland kept them below us.

But it’s worrying that already you are wishing the teams down there to lose each week and we’re only in January. Palace are firmly entrenched in a relegation battle and on current form are in serious trouble of ending this four-year stint in the Premier League.

Allardyce’s honestly at the situation is refreshing but there is a hint of ‘what more can I do?’ already coming from him? I’m not sure what it’s going to take to save Palace this season but we need to all accept this is bad. Real bad.

Updated shape of the Premier League table after today's matches. Chelsea's win keeps their advantage looking healthy: pic.twitter.com/C6ri4L7Gwe

— Ben Mayhew (@experimental361) January 22, 2017

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Sam Allardyce is still searching for a win as Palace as the Eagle went down 3-0 at his former side West Ham.

Three second half goals punished Palace after a fairly decent first half showing to leave them deep in a relegation battle, although somehow still outside the bottom three.

What did we learn from the disappointing defeat at the London Stadium? Here’s five talking points...

Benteke needs to do more

It was another game where the £28m signing didn’t really do much. It could be argued that the service wasn’t there and the team hasn’t worked out how to get the best out of him, but he still needs to do more.

Midfielders James McArthur and Jason Puncheon closed West Ham keeper Darren Randolph down more times than the Belgian and in times of need where players need to dig in, his lethargic swagger doesn’t look good.

At one point Joel Ward got the ball on the right and went to cross to Benteke in the box and he was five yards to Ward’s right, outside the box. Not where he needed to be. Allardyce needs to work out how to get the best out of him quickly because right now Palace are not getting value for money.

Feel like it should be instant relegation for any team that concedes an Andy Carroll bicycle kick tbh.

— Jim Daly (@jimdalycomedy) January 14, 2017

Speroni has to start

Forget the meaning of life, the big question on most Palace fans lips is ‘why on earth is Julian Speroni not first choice?’ Steve Mandanda is injured and Wayne Hennessey is in terrible form.

It was another game where he produced a game changing error; rushing out of his box when he didn’t need to, to allow Michail Antonio to round him with ease and square to Sofiane Feghouli to open the scoring.

It looks like the defence has no confidence in him, with Damien Delaney giving him the death stare after that goal and an incident in the first half where they nearly collided after Hennessey came and stopped for a cross.

Any other team would have changed the keeper by now. What Julian has to do to start a league game is a mystery, especially after doing well when he has deputised recently against Bolton and Manchester United late last season.

Lack of leaders

It’s been said before but this current Palace team has a lack of leaders. In previous seasons when the team has been in the mire there have been big characters able to drag their team-mates up to the level required. Not anymore.

The sale of Mile Jedinak is increasingly looking like on of the the worst decision in recent years, the legacy of a manager who wanted to be the alpa male and stripped the team of it’s big hearts as a result.

Allardyce has a history of signing big characters to drag his teams out of dangers and he is going to need to do the same very soon or else Palace are in big trouble.

Puncheon looked…ok

I’m racking my brains to think of a positive from today and I guess it’s Puncheon. He was the only Palace player looking to make things happen, certainly in the first half.

He is very good at holding onto the ball and releasing it at at the right time. His runs were intelligent too, including one in behind the back four early on that Scott Dann found, only for Puncheons volley to be high and wide.

When Pardew first game in he transformed a Puncheon whose confidence has been stripped by Neil Warnock and made him into a game-changer. Allardyce needs to do the same.

Hello relegation, my old friend.

— Robert Sutherland (@RoDuSu) January 14, 2017

At least we don’t play at the London Stadium

The phone coverage is terrible, the view is awful, the stewards are wankers and those f***king bubbles are well annoying.

Whatever is happening, at least we still have Selhurst, Glad All Over, Kayla, Pete, Alice and…erm…Chris Grierson??