After the highs of two wins on the bounce against Tottenham Hotspur in the league followed by victory at Villa Park against Unai Emery's Aston Villa in midweek, Crystal Palace were brought back down to earth as Oliver Glasner's thin squad just got thinner.
The Austrian takes his team to Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend in a pivotal game for both sides as Gary O'Neil's men look to win their first league game of the season.
Palace could find themselves back in the bottom three before they kick off at 17:30 if fellow strugglers Ipswich Town beat Leicester City, a win for Glasner's men could see them jump to 15th if results go their way.
In other words, this game is vital for Palace, so to be without two more key first team members makes their job a lot more difficult than they would have liked it to be.
Speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s clash, Oliver Glasner gave us a squad update, as well as the threats Wolves can pose to his Palace side.
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Team News
Following the first-half exits of Ebere Eze and Adam Wharton during Wednesday’s victory over Aston Villa, Glasner confirmed that neither player would be available for selection at Molineux this weekend.
“He's injured. He has a hamstring injury and we will miss him for at least against Wolves and against Fulham. Then we have the international break, and then let’s see, but he will be out for those two games." The manager said regarding Eze.
“There is hope [he will return after that], but it will be very ambitious to have him back after the international break. I know we have a great medical department and he will work hard, so let’s see.”
Palace's manager also provided an update regarding Wharton and spoke about the midfielder undergoing surgery on his groin issues.
“We took the final decision he will have surgery so he won’t be available for Wolves. He tried [to train] today but there’s too much pain and it makes no sense.
“He’s really struggled the last weeks and months and so now we took the decision he will have surgery, and we hope to have him back after, let’s say, four weeks.”
The 50-year-old mentioned two other new injuries:
“Joel Ward missed the Aston Villa game, but it’s not that serious. He will miss the Wolves game but should be available against Fulham.
“Jefferson [Lerma] is also out, at least until the international break.”
There was some positive news however, with Glasner stating Cheick Doucoure will be returning to the match day squad this weekend as well as Chris Richards returning to training next week.
“Cheick Doucouré will be back in the squad maybe earlier than we expected. Of course, we’re missing many players now. For sure, he can’t be at 100%, but it’s important that he’s with us.
“Next week Chris Richards should train with us if everything goes the right way, and that’s the positive news.”
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Keeping the momentum
Palace endured a barren start to the Premier League season, but with back to back wins for the first time since then end of the last campaign it is important for Glasner's side to keep that momentum going.
Especially with two winnable games coming up before the next international break.
"It's now about keeping this momentum - it's always being on the highest level, training on the highest level, playing on the highest level, because this is maybe a little bit special this year in the Premier League, every game is tight."
"We see it in the results at the weekend, and we can see it in the cup games, so, yeah, we’re going quite well now."
Defeat against Wolves will undermine the victory against Tottenham , so avoiding defeat is a must for Palace. When you consider where their opponents this weekend are in the league, making sure they take points away from them makes this game that little more important.
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The threat Wolves can create
Gary O'Neil's side have scored double the amount of goals than Palace have this season (12) but on the other hand have conceded the most out of any Premier league team (25).
"First of all, I think [Wolves] are a really good team. In the last game they were very close to getting the win, they scored many goals. They scored two at Brighton, very often they score two goals, but they concede three."
Scoring is clearly not a problem for Wolves but keeping the ball out of the net is.
Glasner spoke about the quality Wolves have especially in the attacking third:
"They have a lot of quality players, especially in their attacking, with [Jørgen] Strand Larsen, with [Matheus] Cunha, with all the midfielders, [Nélson] Semedo from the right. They play a very attacking style, really playing quick, they have pace, so this makes them dangerous, regardless if they have a win or not."
