Crystal Palace are on the verge of equalling the longest unbeaten run in their history, but the data suggests things could get even better for them.
The last few months could scarcely have gone any better for Crystal Palace.
After ending last season with an eight-game unbeaten run that culminated in FA Cup glory, Oliver Glasner’s side have continued their fine form at the start of 2025-26.
Palace have played nine games this season without suffering defeat, meaning they have now gone 17 games unbeaten in all competitions. Avoid a loss to Liverpool next weekend – the team they beat to the Community Shield last month – and they will equal the longest unbeaten run in their history, an 18-game streak that ended in August 1969.
And on top of winning more silverware at Wembley, there has been more good news. They came through their UEFA Conference League qualifier to make the league phase of the competition for their first ever European campaign, they are into the EFL Cup fourth round, and they currently sit fifth in the Premier League table.
As we said, things couldn’t really be going any better.
Or could they?
Opta’s expected points model suggests Palace actually deserve to be even further up the league.
Using expected goals data from each match in 2025-26, the model simulates every game 10,000 times and distributes expected points based on how often each game is won, drawn and lost in those simulations.
In other words, the model looks at the quality of chances each team created in their games and calculates how likely each match result was based on the quality of those opportunities. While it’s not an exact science in that it doesn’t consider periods of attacking pressure that don’t end in a shot (as there’s no xG value), it is supposed to give a better indication of performance quality than actual results which, we can all admit, don’t always reflect how well or badly a team has played.
The underlying data from the first five matchdays of the 2025-26 Premier League season suggests Palace shouldn’t really be fifth. Instead, incredibly, they deserve to be top of the league.
Okay, we’re only five games in. Nobody is going to start saying Palace are in the title race. And even if they were top – which they aren’t – they probably wouldn’t stay there.
But the fact that they ‘should’ have more points than they do certainly bodes well. While the underlying data suggests Liverpool’s perfect record of five wins from five isn’t sustainable (the model says they should be sixth, with just 8.6 xPts rather than 15 actual points), Palace’s performances have deserved even more than the nine points they’ve got. If every team continue to play at the same standard as they have started the season and pick up points closer to in line with the quality of their performances, Palace could rise further up the table.
Looking at the Premier League table over a longer period than the start of this season, the prospect of Palace rising into the top four really isn’t all that fanciful. Listing Premier League teams by their record since the start of 2025, Palace are fourth. Only Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City have more than their 42 points in that time.
Much of their success is based on their exceptional defence. They have conceded only two goals in five games this season, giving them the league’s joint-best defensive record alongside Arsenal. Before Jarrod Bowen’s header from a corner for West Ham on Saturday, Callum Hudson-Odoi had been the only player to breach Palace’s defence.
Their solidity is built on the back three of Marc Guéhi, Maxence Lacroix and Chris Richards; Palace have kept 11 clean sheets in the 19 Premier League games that trio have started in a back three together.
They are slightly fortunate to be able to field them all. Guéhi very nearly left for Liverpool in the summer and would have gone had he had his own way.
In the end, though, he stayed. And anyway, Glasner’s Palace are greater than the sum of their parts. They might have won as many points even if Guéhi had gone.
This isn’t a team of individuals, but a solid, well-oiled and functional machine that punches above its weight. That’s something they have proved beyond doubt by continuing to perform this season after losing one of the most talented players the club has ever had this summer, with Eberechi Eze having moved to Arsenal.
Their reactive and direct style of football, based around their solid defence and quick transitions into the final third, is proving hugely effective. In an age when teams across the Premier League appear increasingly happy to play direct football, Palace’s decision to appoint Glasner, whose teams have always played this way, as manager in February 2024 has proved prescient.
Read More
Premier LeagueCounter-Attacking Man City: Pep Guardiola is Following Football’s Latest Trend, Not Creating it
2 days ago Ali TweedaleThis season, only Burnley and Brentford have averaged less possession in Premier League games than Palace (42.4%). Only Burnley have started their open-play passing sequences closer to their own goal than Palace (39.4 metres away). Palace’s players have applied significantly fewer pressures in the final third than any other team, with their total of 388 some 82 lower than anyone else, and they have won possession within 40 metres of the opposition’s goal fewer times (19) than any other team. They have attacked up the pitch at a faster speed (2.02 metres per second) than every team other than bar Burnley (2.10 m/s).
These stats do a good job of building a picture of the kind of team Palace are. Sit back, soak up pressure, hit the opposition on the break, right?
Well, not entirely.
Although Palace press high less than anyone else, they also don’t drop back into a low block and defend in a compact shape right in front of their own goal for long periods. They have spent more time out of possession against opposition build-up in a mid-block (62%) than any other team, suggesting they aren’t entirely risk-averse, choosing to leave a little space in behind their defensive line, thereby reducing the amount of space the opposition have to operate in.
They also haven’t been very effective with their counter-attacks, registering just one shot and no goals from fast breaks. Both are lower than just about every other team in the Premier League this season. They aren’t a low-block-and-counter-attack kind of team.
There is, in fact much more to them. They can be much more controlled and assured in the final third than their possession numbers initially indicate. They consistently find their way into dangerous positions by attacking up the pitch at pace, but they don’t rush things once they get there. They are happy to pause to take stock before making a sensible decision as to what to do.
Crosses have proved their main route to goal this season, with all five of their non-penalty Premier League goals having followed a cross of some sort.
Two of those were at set-pieces, where they have been particularly effective. Only Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea have generated more xG at set-pieces this season than Palace (3.00 xG).
But that is not to say they are reliant on dead balls. They rank fifth (ahead of all three teams who have more xG at set-pieces than them) in the Premier League for open-play xG this season, with 4.7. They are only behind Man City, Man Utd, Brighton and Liverpool in this regard, each of whom play a more possession-based game.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the pitch, their mid-block defensive approach is working wonders. Through five Premier League matches, they have conceded chances in open play worth just 1.7 xG. That’s an average of only 0.3 xG per game.
They do need to improve at defensive set-pieces, having conceded 3.0 xG – the fourth-highest in the league – including Bowen’s goal at West Ham at the weekend, but that feels like something Glasner could improve without too much work. It hardly seems like giving up a few too many chances at set-pieces is something to worry about.
In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much for Palace to worry about at all. The Eagles are flying high, and the data suggests they might soar even higher before long.
They have 59 points from their last 38 Premier League games (the length of a full season), but having lost the first three games in that run, they could soon set a club record for any 38-game period in their Premier League history. That record is held by Alan Pardew’s Palace in December 2015, at 63 points. If Palace take five points from games against Liverpool, Everton and Bournemouth, they’ll break that record.
Jonathan Manuel / Data AnalystIn three of the past four seasons, 63 points was enough to come sixth, which would be the highest position Palace had ever finished in the Premier League era.
Their form at the end of last season and the start of this one suggests picking up that many points is eminently possible.
This is a formidable and reliable side who have already done plenty of things that no Crystal Palace team have done before. There’s every reason to believe they can carry on doing just that.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Crystal Palace’s 17-Game Unbeaten Run Might Only Be the Start Opta Analyst.
Hence then, the article about crystal palace s 17 game unbeaten run might only be the start was published today ( ) and is available on The Analyst ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Crystal Palace’s 17-Game Unbeaten Run Might Only Be the Start )
Also on site :
- Anycubic Opens Deposits for Kobra X, Following Formnext Debut of Its Next-Generation Entry-Level Multicolor FDM Printer
- Disgraced former Centinela Valley schools Superintendent Jose Fernandez dies
- Outsiders see a circular economy. CoreWeave’s CEO sees a ‘violent change’ rattling the supply chain down to the inside of the earth