Crystal Palace top the expected goals list ahead of facing Premier League leaders and former England star Ebelesi Eze at the Emirates on Sunday.
Oliver Glazer has stated the ‘fact’ that Crystal Palace are more creative without Eberechi Eze. The inspiring England star scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final, giving the south London club their first major trophy in May.
But since Eze moved to Sunday’s opponents Arsenal for £60m in the summer, the statistics show Palace have created better chances. With just one loss in eight Premier League games, the Eagles topped the XG (Expected Goals) table, but finished seventh last year.
The Austrian team also grew after selling Michael Olise for £60 million in July 2024. And Ismaila Sarr is currently paired with £26m Spaniard Elemy Pino in a playmaking role.
“Ebereki was definitely a player who could decide the game on his own in a given situation,” Glasner said. “But it’s good to look at the facts. I always look at my stats and I think he has the highest XG in the entire Premier League. That’s a fact.”
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“Crystal Palace sold Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze and bought Jeremy Pino and Ismaila Sarr. This is a credit to the players. It’s not an individual achievement, it’s a team achievement. It’s a credit to the team as a whole.
“For us as Crystal Palace to have the best XG in the entire Premier League in front of City, Arsenal, Liverpool, all these teams, it shows how much effort this team shows every game. Yes, of course everyone who likes Crystal Palace wants to have Michael and Ebbs still in the team.”
“We lost a great player and an even better person. I’m looking forward to seeing him, but we didn’t develop a friendship during the game. But on the other hand, we’ve shown that we can also create enough chances to score goals.”
Palace were inefficient at converting chances, with top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta, who scored a hat-trick against Bournemouth, missing three clear-cut chances in the shock home defeat to AEK Larnaca in the UEFA Conference League. Against Cyprus, he had 15 shots, but only one was on target.
Premier League leaders Arsenal have conceded just three goals in eight games, and Glasner added: “Maybe Emirates are better suited to play efficiently and have one or two chances and score one or two goals.”
Palace’s unbeaten run of 19 games, which had been going on since April, came to an end with the match against Everton, and they are now without a win in three games.
“It was a great start, but it was clear the whole season wasn’t going to go like this because we won all four competitions,” Glassner said. “But performance is fine, so there’s nothing to worry about at all.”
And the Austrian, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, promised his team would learn from the Larnaca defeat. “When you’re in the Premier League, people always say ‘you’re going to win the conference league’,” he said.
“Maybe the whole environment needed it to stay humble.”
England goalkeeper Dean Henderson added: “It’s our first game in Europe at Selhurst and we have to win that game. There can be no excuses. Maybe it’s a bit of a reality check. I think when we were down to their level we could have had more intensity. I thought we could have wasted 45 minutes just playing slowly at the back. Sometimes you get stung on the backside.”
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