This afternoon we welcome Oliver Glasner and his Crystal Palace squad to St. James’ Park, and on behalf of the players and coaching staff, we wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.
Palace are very tough opponents for our first game of 2026, and have performed at a high level this season and last, so we will need to hit our best levels today as a result. At the time of writing, we don’t know the outcome of our trip to Burnley, but in our last home match against Chelsea, we experienced mixed emotions. In what was arguably one of our most impressive halves of the season, we started extremely well and were rewarded after just four minutes when Nick Woltemade gave us an early lead. We continued looking a threat each time we went forward and doubled our lead midway through the half with another goal from Nick. The game changed early in the second half when Chelsea found a way back in against the run of play, and they were level after the hour mark. The players deserve credit for their response to this setback, and we went on to create enough chances to win the game, but in the end we had to settle for the draw. A few days later, we travelled to Old Trafford to play Manchester United, where in the first half I felt we fell below the high standards we’ve set ourselves in recent weeks, and went in a goal behind at half time. Again, the players showed an excellent response and we looked much more like ourselves in the second half. We dominated possession, created enough to chances to have won the game, but on the night we did everything but score. If you took the first half against Chelsea and the second half at Manchester United, you’d almost have the perfect performance. We are certainly showing signs that we are capable of putting a run together, and we know the challenge now is to demonstrate this on a more consistent basis.
There is no short-cut to this, and we know only hard work on the training ground and sticking to our principles will give us the rewards we are all looking for. With players hopefully returning from injury in the next few weeks to bolster our squad, we will give everything possible to climbing the league and maintaining our positive form in Europe and the cup competitions.
It is the least we can do to reward the incredible support we have received in the past year. Home and away, you have always backed us and we never take this for granted. Thank you for staying with us, and we will do our best to reward your loyalty in the year ahead.
Eddie Howe
