Crystal Palace

Rock bottom in 16th place with zero points from five matches, Crystal Palace find themselves in the grip of an existential crisis at Selhurst Park. The Eagles are winless and wounded, their wings clipped by a brutal opening sequence that includes humbling 3-0 drubbings away to Manchester City and Bournemouth, capped most recently by a gut-wrenching 1-2 home defeat to Arsenal where hope briefly flickered through Brennan Johnson's strike before being extinguished. Oliver Glasner—the Austrian tactician who arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt with genuine European pedigree and revolution promises—now faces a stark reality: a skeletal squad of just 13 registered players that leaves his possession-based philosophy dangerously exposed. Johnson carries the attacking burden with four goals, but the weight threatens to overwhelm Palace's summer acquisition. Amid the gloom, left-back Tyrick Mitchell has emerged as the team's heartbeat, his defensive steel and lung-busting flank raids embodying precisely the fight Glasner desperately needs to ignite. Without urgent reinforcements before the window slams shut, a campaign that whispered European ambitions risks devolving into a desperate scrap for Premier League survival.

Glasner implements a possession-based approach that builds patiently from the back, emphasizing defensive organization and coordinated pressing before transitioning with speed through the wide areas.