Whenever a manager leaves a football club before the start of the season, it always raises questions about the state and the integrity of said club.

Welshman Tony Pulis left Crystal Palace in August less than 48 hours before the 2014-15 Premier League season began. Questions began to be asked about the state of Crystal Palace football club. The reason Pulis left was due to the failure of Crystal Palace’s attempts to land transfer targets during the summer.

Then began the turmoil. Not only did Palace lose their first two Premier League games of the season, but their new manager search was under fire as well. Malky Mackay had been the favourite to take over at Selhurst Park but as that all went pear shaped after allegations were revealed of him sending sexist, racist and homophobic texts. Those allegations also involved Iain Moody, who resigned from his role of director of sport from Crystal Palace.

After all these setbacks, who ended up being Pulis’ replacement? Neil Warnock, back for a second spell with the club after previously taking charge between 2007 and 2010 before the club went into administration. The day after he was appointed, he brought Wilfred Zaha back to the club on loan from Manchester United, who became a key component in his first game in charge against Newcastle.

In this game at St James’ Park, Palace took the lead twice thanks to a Dwight Gayle goal after 29 seconds and a Jason Puncheon volley later on, but then they had to rely on a Zaha equaliser in stoppage time to finish the game 3-3. The point earned in this game was Palace’s first point of the new season and showed a new kind of fight to stay in this league under Warnock.

Palace were able to create a high number of chances, despite only having 36% possession throughout the game and were strong at finishing when the chances occurred as well. From the 12 shots they had, seven of them were on target, a greater improvement compared to their first two games of the season against Arsenal and West Ham.

However, Palace were still quite aggressive with play and lost possession often and this is an issue Warnock will need to address.

Warnock has attempted to address this issue with the signing of Kevin Doyle and James McArthur on transfer deadline day. The immediate impact of Zaha as well shows Warnock knows what Palace need for the fight to stay in the Premier League.

Warnock’s first home game in charge in the Premier League will come this weekend against Burnley. Hopefully he will have established a playing style he would like to play with this Palace squad, which has more than enough to stay in the Premier League.

Crystal Palace is still one of the favourites to be relegated from the Premier League this season but I think Warnock is the right man to lead them towards survival.

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