Crystal Palace suffered defeat in the first away game of the season as John Ludstram’s close range finish secured victory for the Blades.
Chances were rare in this match as both teams looked structured from the start but the first opportunity fell to Christian Benteke on five minutes.
A long pass from Luka Milivojevic found the returning Wilfried Zaha out wide, his defelcted pass fell to Christian Benteke ten yards from goal but his low, driving shot was saved comfortably at the near post by Dean Henderson.
As the first half stalemate wore on, it was Sheffield United who started to dominate the game, finding more and more space in the wide areas and looking dangerous with their overlapping, fast style.
The Blades claimed a penalty on 23 minutes after Martin Kelly blocked Enda Stevens’ shot. David Coote wasn’t interested in any appeals as Andros Townsend then broke quickly down the opposite end and played in Zaha who won a corner for Palace.
Sheffield started to build pressure again towards the end of the first half and a mistake from Patrick Van Aanholt, losing the ball cheaply 30 yards from his own goal, lead to a Sheffield cross David McGoldrick looked certain to finish, but Vincente Guaita made himself big and smothered the ball well.
The Blades started the second half brightly and broke the deadlock on 47 minutes. A quick move down the left flank found Luke Freeman, who easily cut in passed Joel Ward, and shot. Guaita parried straight into the path of Lundstram who smashed home from 8 yards.
Palace tried to respond quickly as Townsend attempted a trademark cut inside on to his left foot on the edge of the box, but his effort was deflected and easily pushed away by Henderson.
The game slowed in pace in the second half as United had a couple of half chances from corners and Guaita produced another good save from a point blank header on 71 minutes.
Palace made tactical changes to try and find the equalizer. James McCarthy made his debut, replacing Townsend on 70 minutes, Jeff Schlupp made his first appearance of the season on 66 minutes and Conor Wickham replaced James McArthur in an attempt to play long football to create a late chance.
The game fizzled out and Sheffield comfortably defended any late Palace pressure by clearing their lines and brought on Phil Jagielka for the final ten minutes to see out their victory.
Man of the Match: Martin Kelly.
Such a performance left very few bright sparks for Palace in this match. The only player who had an average match was Martin Kelly who didn’t do too much wrong and mainly looked comfortable for most of the game.
Reaction:
This was an all round poorest of the poor performance from Palace. Toothless, lethargic and boring. The first big concern is that Joel Ward had the most touches of the ball for Palace during the match. If we want to compete against any team, we need to get our most talented players on the ball and play further up the pitch. This links to the lack of goals and I’m sure most Palace fans will be having nightmares about last seasons woes in front of goal. Christian Benteke has scored four goals in his last 50 appearances for the Eagles which is truly dismal, but he doesn’t even stand a chance if we are not using the ball effectively or creating chances. The meager 6 shots on goal for Palace during this fixture, 5 of which came before Sheffield scored on 47 minutes, highlights this severe problem which must be addressed quickly.