From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Daniel Muñoz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Yeremy Pino’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Crystal Palace.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Evann Guessand was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Will Hughes at his very best
Marked 9.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Crystal Palace.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Crystal Palace game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Newcastle United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremy Pino has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Nathaniel Clyne out for 136 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crystal Palace will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Henderson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dean Henderson, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 317% of everything Crystal Palace earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Tottenham, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Dean Henderson
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
4.38 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 144 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Crystal Palace have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Maxence Lacroix was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jefferson Lerma wants continental football; whether Crystal Palace can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daniel Muñoz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean-Philippe Mateta. 3‑1 against Wolverhampton, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
37 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 35. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ismaïla Sarr in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Harry Lee is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Muñoz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.99 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Brighton, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
28 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dean Henderson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Cheick Doucouré was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Solly March at his very best
Marked 8.85. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Crystal Palace.
Match12 Sep 2026
Crystal Palace settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Brighton spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mattheus Oliveira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Sep 2026
Solly March wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Crystal Palace hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Muñoz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
358% of the income goes out in wages at Crystal Palace
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Eddie Nketiah
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 11, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 47, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Daichi Kamada
Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Hull City for David Angibeaud was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Evann Guessand was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yeremy Pino gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Crystal Palace, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Henderson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean-Philippe Mateta, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.91, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Ismaïla Sarr to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Manchester City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Eoin Toal ended with $3.9M changing hands and Bolton Wanderers out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Everton for Benji Casey was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Evann Guessand was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dean Henderson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Hughes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Chelsea come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Crystal Palace did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismaïla Sarr commits to Crystal Palace for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Evann Guessand was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Benji Casey has come up in conversations Crystal Palace were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ismaïla Sarr knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Crystal Palace, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Aston Villa for Jean-Philippe Mateta was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ismaïla Sarr in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crystal Palace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crystal Palace heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Crystal Palace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Henderson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.