C Palace 4 - 1 Stoke

C Palace 4 - 1 Stoke

Andros Townsend shines as Crystal Palace overrun demoralised Stoke

Home team scorers
James Tomkins 9
Scott Dann 11
James McArthur 71
Andros Townsend 75

Away team scorers
Marko Arnautovic 90 +3:07

Instinct suggests Stoke City have far too much pedigree to be loitering at the foot of the table for long but, with each thrashing they endure, the creeping sense of crisis grips tighter. This was a second successive drubbing to the tune of four goals conceded, a rout inflicted by a Crystal Palace team who have been accused so often of being obliging hosts. But, whereas they have now forced their way into the top half Stoke shudder under the weight of the division.

This was grim viewing for Mark Hughes and worse for the visiting fans left disgusted in the Arthur Wait stand. A team who have been rightly praised for transforming their attacking style, learning to flourish in possession, appear to have forgotten the basics in defensive organisation. Where once they were strong, aggressive and thoroughly drilled, now their back line was ramshackle and confidence brittle throughout. By the end it was shattered.

They shipped three goals from set-pieces here, probably should have conceded more with a soft underbelly exposed and were tormented from flank to centre by the energy of Palace’s front five. Andros Townsend ran amok, eventually enjoying personal reward by curling in a sumptuous first goal for the club, and the home side’s fourth of the afternoon, from distance as all semblance of resistance evaporated. “We knew if we started fast, got in behind them and got crosses in, we’d be a threat,” said Townsend. That seemed basic, but it worked. Stoke never coped with his trickery or that of Wilfried Zaha on the opposite flank.

Christian Benteke may not have scored himself but his mere presence unnerved Stoke at set pieces, permitting both centre-halves to register goals in the first quarter-hour. Throw in Jason Puncheon’s wicked delivery, whether from dead-ball situations or open play, and the industry of the outstanding James McArthur and Palace were irrepressible. “We lost [Yannick ] Bolasie and James at around the same stage last season, both big blows and, to be honest, I don’t know which one was the bigger loss,” said Alan Pardew. “James gives an energy and assurance that we miss when he’s not there. He was excellent.”

The same glowing tributes could be paid to players up and down his selection, and almost none of those in Stoke colours. This was a wretched display, typified by a troubling blend of carelessness and panic at the back. They were breached twice within 134 seconds early on, concessions which set the tone, with both utterly avoidable. James Tomkins should surely have been better tracked at Townsend’s early free-kick, looped beyond Shay Given to the far post, but Jonathan Walters could only end up prodding goalwards from point-blank range in his desperation to intercept. Tomkins celebrated the gift with a touch.

Just as inexcusable was the free run permitted Scott Dann moments later, the defender thumping his header down and through a Stoke player on the line. It would take Bojan’s nod from the line to deny Dann a second after the interval with the visitors’ dopiness still evident. If they had hoped to mount a recovery, then a failure to clear Puncheon’s free-kick – another conceded needlessly by Marko Arnautovic – 19 minutes from time scuppered their aspirations. McArthur was permitted to collect, cut inside and curl a shot that deflected in off Geoff Cameron. In truth, it was only Given’s smart save from Zaha’s backheel and a series of lunged blocks from a rearguard permanently at breaking point that prevented the home side running up a cricket score.

In that context it was hard to pluck positives from the wreckage. Hughes could point to Arnautovic’s emphatic finish beyond Steve Mandanda in stoppage time, providing only his team’s third league goal of season, but the sloppiness had been as much in evidence among his forward thinkers. Bojan, still striving for full fitness, was peripheral. Wilfried Bony is a player still adjusting to new surroundings, with plenty of his shooting wildly inaccurate for all that it took a smart tackle from Damien Delaney to deny him a second-half tap in. Walters, too, missed a presentable opportunity after the contest had been surrendered.

None of that amounted to grounds for much optimism. Instead Hughes was left drawing some kind of hope from his team’s recovery from last year’s disappointing opening, when they had accrued three points from six Premier League games. Their run of games ahead does, indeed, look encouraging but this is a team who have just subsided at Selhurst Park. They are not building from any proper platform, other than the memory of how well they have done in the last three seasons.

“Clearly we didn’t have a strong start last year too and turned it round,” said Hughes. “We have to be more solid and resolute but we’ve got a decent dressing room and experienced players who know how to win Premier League games. At some point that will come to the fore.”

Pardew had attempted to dissuade the home support from taunting his opposite number with their chorus of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” before the end. It has not quite come to that yet but Hughes will be the first to recognise that much of this was unacceptable.

Guardian