Crystal Palace

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

Looking at Premier League teams' attacks specifically in the graphic below, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have taken by far the most shots, averaging about 15 per game.

But the reason why Manchester City and Crystal Palace have the best attacks overall is because they are creating much better chances, averaging about 0.14 xG per shot.

What that means is that historically Premier League sides have converted the chances City and Palace are creating at a rate of 14%, compared to 10% of the shots that United, Arsenal and Liverpool are.

Brentford are a strange side because while they are averaging just eight shots per game, the quality of those chances has been so high that their attack still ranks mid-table overall.

Read more on what expected goals tell us about the start to the season

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

The Premier League table is starting to take shape and while results are obviously what matter most, they don't tell the whole story in terms of how teams have been playing so far.

Expected goals (xG) tells us how much teams have been dominating games by creating lots of good chances up front and restricting opponents to few, bad ones at the back.

Penalties are excluded because they distort a team's numbers on how threatening or vulnerable they are in general, especially at this early stage.

Below is a graphic showing how good teams have been in attack and defence, with the most dominant teams in the top-right corner and the least impressive in the bottom-left corner.

Arsenal and Manchester City have been the most dominant sides, with the Gunners having the best defence and fourth-best attack and City the joint-best attack and fourth-best defence.

High-flying Crystal Palace are the only side to rival City's attacking threat, while Newcastle are living up to their name by being almost as impregnable at the back as Arsenal.

Both Manchester United and Chelsea have one of the top five attacks in the league but worryingly also rank in the bottom five defensively.

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Liverpool's back-to-back defeats following five straight wins gives a more accurate picture of how they have been playing, while Tottenham have needed to be very efficient to make up for their lack of dominance in games.

Aston Villa's early-season struggles are no longer to do with finishing - they have now scored six non-penalty goals from an xG of 6.0 - but simply because they have not been playing well.

While promoted sides Leeds and Sunderland have adapted quite well to the top-flight, Burnley have struggled to make the jump so far with both the worst attack and the worst defence.

Read more on what expected goals tell us about the start to the season

Crystal Palace are relaxed about the future of Adam Wharton amid increasing speculation of interest from Premier League rivals Manchester United for the 21-year-old England midfielder. (Sky Sports), external

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Phil McNulty
Chief football writer

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Adam Wharton has been outstanding for Crystal Palace for a long time now, running games against elite opponents, especially Manchester City when the Eagles won the FA Cup at Wembley last season, and in the win against Premier League champions Liverpool recently.

His loping, languid style may sometimes disguise a classy, fiercely competitive midfielder, but his England breakthrough has not arrived, despite going to Germany as part of Southgate's Euro 2024 squad.

He is yet to get his first minutes under Thomas Tuchel and was another surprise omission from the most recent squad.

Wharton's only England cap came under Southgate against Bosnia & Herzegovina in June 2024, when he made a 28-minute appearance as a substitute.

Like others, he is still waiting for his chance to make his mark, with Nottingham Forest's Elliott Anderson taking the opportunity handed to him by Tuchel to look right at home on the international stage.

Tuchel has made all the right noises, even down to contacting Wharton to reassure him he is in his thoughts.

However, with the Palace midfielder yet to make one of Tuchel's squads he must continue to press his case to finally get some action under England's head coach.

Read the full list of players with points to prove here

Italian club Inter Milan have entered the race to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi but Liverpool remain favourites for the signature of the 25-year-old England international. (Tuttosport - in Italian, external)

Meanwhile, Palace defender Daniel Munoz is wanted by Barcelona but the Eagles will not let the 29-year-old Colombia international leave in January. (Fichajes - in Spanish), external

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Alex Pewter
Fan writer

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Crystal Palace may be a mere footnote in the career of former USA player and head coach Gregg Berhalter, but in 2002, shortly before leaving the club for Germany, he became the first Palace player to play at a World Cup.

An odd accolade to highlight perhaps, but with the eyes of football currently focused on the battle for places at the 2026 World Cup in North America, Palace have never had as many players factoring into that contest in their history.

The club has had six players feature across five of the past six competitions, for a total of 14 appearances. In contrast, for next year's showpiece, four players already have places booked at the World Cup – Chris Richards, Daichi Kamada, and the Colombia pair of Daniel Munoz and Jefferson Lerma.

This week has been a particularly successful international break for those away from Copers Cope. Jean-Philippe Mateta made a long-overdue debut for France, Yeremy Pino and Ismaila Sarr both were on the scoresheet for their countries, whilseMarc Guehi got a pair of assists for England.

Rather than being players playing for fringe teams within the competition, these are players playing for potential favourites come June. In the case of England, Adam Wharton will be gunning to join that number.

There are still others who could add to that figure, albeit with outside chances, such as Justin Devenny for Northern Ireland and Rio Cardines for Trinidad and Tobago.

We often reflect on how far the team has come this century, and this is undoubtedly a new angle, given the calibre of players currently in the squad.

Even for casual fans of the international game at this World Cup, Crystal Palace will never have had this many vested interests on the biggest stage in sport.

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Crystal Palace and Manchester United are monitoring Borussia Dortmund's England Under-21 midfielder Jobe Bellingham. (Bild - in German, subscription required), external

Chelsea's pursuit of Palace's Adam Wharton has intensified but they face competition from Manchester United for the midfielder. (Teamtalk), external

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We asked for your views on whether you are confident that Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish can get Oliver Glasner to sign a new deal, and how important that would be.

Here are some of your comments:

Simon: Glasner needs to know he has the financial backing of this club. Deadline day showed he had to fight to stop us losing our best players with no replacement in sight. I can't see him staying unless he gets significant reassurance from Parish and co, and even that might be too little too late.

Joe: If the deal captures and promises progression then I think there will be another one to two years to his tenure. I don't buy into this Manchester United potential move as it is not a positive move in terms of progression. If a top, top job opens up - like the Bayern Munich job - then we need to be worried.

Tom: I wouldn't say I feel confident, but Oliver has been magnificent for the club and a bigger club wouldn't have given him the time that we gave him at the start of last season. He can (and already has) achieved big things with this club. He can go further still. I honestly think it could go either way.

Robert: I would be delighted if Glasner were to extend his contract but don't expect it to happen. Parish won't let the club overreach itself financially given our past administration history and progress in the Premier League requires serious money spent wisely. I don't see Palace being able to match Glasner's ambitions. The one plus is that Glasner seems to genuinely like being at Palace with the harmony in the squad of players.

Allan: Unless Parish allows Glasner to have new players of his choice, I am certain he will leave.

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Adam Wharton "has won Thomas Thuchel over", but the partnership of Elliot Anderson and Declan Rice may prevent him from earning a starting position for England, says the Sunday Times' chief football writer Jonathan Northcroft.

The Crystal Palace midfielder was omitted from this camp because manager Tuchel wanting to stick to the same players he picked last time - much to the surprise of pundits and fans.

"Wharton is a really special player and he would have had more caps if it wasn't for injuries," Northcroft told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast. "He has been unfortunate.

"Tuchel a year ago was probably a Wharton skeptic because he likes the athletic profile of a midfielder - like Declan Rice. That means he probably had doubts about Wharton's dynamism.

"He has now won Tuchel over and he did want to get him in the squad, so I do think he would have picked him had he not have wanted to keep the same camp.

"Tuchel has got himself into a nice position now, so that players like Wharton, Jude Bellingham and Jack Grealish know they have to be playing well to get into the squad.

"The difficulty for Wharton is that Elliot Anderson and Declan Rice are looking so good together. Tuchel agrees because he is already talking about them as some form of anchoring point.

"So it will be difficult, but he is such a special player so surely he gets in the squad."

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Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says talks have taken place with Oliver Glasner about extending the contract of the Eagles manager as the two parties look to "align their interests".

The Austrian will be out of contract at the end of the season and there is uncertainty about the 51-year-old's future at the club.

"We've had some early conversations," Parish told Talksport. "We would love to keep Oliver. We're building something. I think, for Oliver, it's about the conditions being right."

Do you feel confident that Parish can get Glasner to sign a new deal? How important is it, or have you accepted this is likely to be his final season at Selhurst Park?

Get in touch with your views here

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Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has collected the Austria Coach of the Year prize at the NIKI awards in Vienna.

The 51-year-old beat ski jumping coach Andreas Widholzl and beach volleyball coach Tie Santana Bento Crespo to the prize at the annual awards ceremony, which is named after Austrian sporting legend and former Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda.

Glasner was recognised for his achievements over the past 12 months - from winning the FA Cup and Community Shield, the club's first major trophies in its 120-year history, to recently taking the club on a record 19-game unbeaten run.

"You can only do it as a team," Glasner said. "I have supervisors around me who support me incredibly well, and the most important thing is the players. They are just great guys."

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Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi says he does not know where his future lies but it will be "taken care of at the end of the season".

A deal was agreed to sell Guehi to Liverpool for a fee of £35m on deadline day but it collapsed late on after Palace were unable to find a replacement.

The 25-year-old has started every Premier League game for the Eagles since, helping them ascend to sixth in the early table and is part of the England squad for Thursday's friendly against Wales and Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Asked on whether he knows the next step in his career, Guehi said: "No, because I like to live in the present and I can't be thinking about the future at all because there is a lot of work to do, but also my future is in God's hands.

"Wherever God wants me to go, I will go, but that will be taken care of at the end of the season."

Guehi has played in 14 of the past 20 England internationals and stressed he will not let his contract situation affect him heading into next summer's World Cup in the United States.

"For me, it doesn't really matter, to be honest," he said. "As long as I'm playing well and helping Palace, there's definitely an opportunity for me to be here as I am today.

"Whether it's sorted or not, it's not really the most important thing to be honest.

"Personally, I don't know if I can think that far ahead. I like to just take it step by step, and that is just focusing on the games that I have at Palace and any upcoming opportunities I have here.

"When [deadline day] happened, it was all a blur. To be honest, I'm still the same young man trying to find his feet, find his way, trying to improve.

"There's so many experiences I can take, not just from that, but just the games that I've had over the last 12 months or so."

Full commentary of England v Wales on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday from 19:45 BST

Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent

What is happening with Matheus Franca's has been the subject of several questions sent in via our 'Ask About Crystal Palace' form so we put the issue to our senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel.

Franca is currently on loan at Brazilian club Vasco de Gama.

His first season at Palace did not go according to plan given his difficulty in adapting to English football and injury.

But having now been shipped back to his homeland on loan, the chances of Franca having a career at Selhurst Park appear slim.

Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.

We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.

Find out more here

Alex Pewter
Fan writer

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There are many unanswered questions regarding Crystal Palace. What possessed Simon Jordan to sign Ade Akinbiyi? How did Darren Ambrose score that goal? Why is it always, always Everton?

It may be fitting that the same club ended both the club's 18-match unbeaten streak in 1969 and its 19-match unbeaten run in 2025 - both by the same scoreline.

However, the struggles against the blue half of Liverpool have been a particularly modern phenomenon.

Palace haven't beaten Everton in the Premier League for four years and they haven't won away at Goodison Park, and now Hill Dickinson Stadium, in 11 tries.

Even in seasons when Everton appeared to be struggling, in contrast to this campaign, Palace have been incapable of getting a victory over the line.

It is unlikely that Oliver Glasner will buy into any notion of an Everton curse, and he dismissed the idea that fatigue, following Thursday's Europa Conference League game against Dynamo Kyiv, was a factor in the collapse.

To subscribers of xG and expected goals as indicators of performance, Palace are equally underperforming their attacking figures as they are overperforming defensively, and perhaps should be a bit higher up in the table as a consequence.

The eye test also suggested that, as with the flow of momentum during the last two Premier League games, Glasner's team failed to capitalise on their chances when they were on top.

While Eddie Nketiah's last-gasp winner overcame that against Liverpool, it could have been an easier result.

Even Jean-Philippe Mateta, on the eve of a potential France debut, carried some of the criticism for misses against Everton, but his underlying numbers are encouraging.

But there has been an uptick in shots per 90 minutes and he is still hitting the target at a better rate than last season, so it is likely a matter of time until the goals begin to flow.

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Crystal Palace plan to offer Adam Wharton a new contract to try to ward off interest from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City in the 21-year-old England midfielder. (Mail), external

Bayern Munich are interested in 25-year-old England defender Marc Guehi, who is out of contract at the end of the season and had a deadline-day move to Liverpool collapse last month. (Sky Germany - in German), external

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Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton says he will "keep knocking on the door" for an England call-up by continuing to play the way he is for the Eagles.

Wharton was controversially omitted from Thomas Tuchel's England squad for the upcoming friendly against Wales and World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

"He just gave me a message saying I'm playing well, I'm close and I deserve to be there but he's going to stick with the same team," said Wharton.

"That's football, I'm not too fussed about that. I can take the time off, go see my grandparents, and it's not the end of the world as there's another camp next month.

"Nothing is expected. England have some top players and he's got a lot of players to choose from. No matter who he picks someone is not going to get in and there will be a fuss about it.

"I can't sit here and cry about it, this is football and I'm happy playing for Palace and getting minutes and trying to do as well as I can and improve and if I get picked, I get picked.

"If not I'll carry on playing for Palace and enjoying it - there's nothing else I can do really.

"Obviously everyone wants to play for their country if they get chosen but, like I said, this is football and he's got plenty of top players to choose from and that's what he gets paid to do, pick the team and help England do well.

"Hopefully they kick on and get the results they need to qualify for the World Cup. I'll keep knocking on the door and if I'm in, I'm in and if not I'll carry on."

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Everton and Crystal Palace.

Here are some of your comments:

Everton fans

Alex: After a woeful first half in which we deserved to go 1-0 down, the second half was a huge improvement. Very shrewd substitutions and Carlos Alcaraz really injected some much-needed energy into the team. Great game in defence from James Tarkowski and Michael Keane. So good to see Jack Grealish on the scoresheet. COYB. We've shown we can win ugly. Superb result.

Steve: A good win, three valuable points. Sloppy play in the first half. Picked up in the second half. Pleased to see Grealish score. Will have to play more consistent though if we are to maintain this good run of success.

Ken: Poor in the first half but showed resilience and determination. Palace deserved a draw but football doesn't work like that. Good to see Jack get his first Blue goal and full credit to Iliman Ndiaye for a cool penalty. Onwards and upwards. A really good result if not a 100% performance. The international break gives us a chance to work on a few things.

Graham: Alcaraz changed the game. Got a touch lucky today but glad we showed some bottle to go until the end. The ref however was as dreadful as can be!

Crystal Palace fans

Vic: The first half we all but dominated proceedings with only one goal to show. The football was as good as the travelling support could have hoped for after the win against Dynamo Kiev on Thursday. Sadly, missed chances was again our downfall that resulted in a spirited fightback by the Toffees. In the end, it seemed a game too far as we ran out of steam.

Al: Three points lost. The first half was one of wasted chances and then more wasted. Disappointing from Jean-Philippe Mateta, who is struggling in front of goal. Perhaps a wake up call for the team. The bonus is that we are still sitting in top six.

Dave: Palace played well overall, but a mistake and a poor performance from the ref have cost us today. How many times the ref unfairly penalised Adam Wharton was ridiculous.

Paul: Great start and first half. Everton much more physical in second half. Mateta should have scored a sitter, then there was a certain inevitability about it. Everton are a bit of a bogey team for us. Had forgotten what it felt like to lose (April)!!

Pundits Joe Hart and Danny Murphy join host Kelly Cates to bring you the action and talking points from Sunday's five Premier League fixtures.

Watch on BBC iPlayer here

And listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley

• Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace

• Newcastle 2-0 Nottingham Forest

• Wolves 1-1 Brighton

• Brentford 0-1 Man City

Chelsea will not make a move for Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi, 25, despite the England defender being available on a free transfer next summer. (Express), external

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