Crystal Palace suffering from lack of belief, says boss Allardyce
Sam Allardyce says his Crystal Palace players are suffering from a lack of belief after slipping to a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on New Year’s Day.
Olivier Giroud’s audacious flick and an Alex Iwobi header lifted the Gunners up to third in the Premier League, while the Eagles suffered their 11th league defeat in 19 games, and are two points and one place above the relegation zone.
Allardyce took over from Alan Pardew before Christmas, and will be hoping to get his first win as Palace boss when they host bottom side Swansea City on Tuesday.
The former England manager said it was imperative that his side produce a more confident performance against their fellow strugglers.
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“There was a lack of belief in themselves [against Arsenal],” he said. “It’s been so long since they’ve gone on an extended run of good results.
“Going into 2016 the club was fifth in the Premier League, and then 2016 is well documented. Let’s hope 2017 is more like 2015.
“We’re going to survive by beating teams in the bottom half and if we can get a victory against one of the top teams then that’ll be a bonus to get us safe quicker.
“I think Swansea is a massive game for the nerves of our players and they have to control them on the day as everyone expects us to win on the basis that Swansea are struggling badly recently.
“Everyone is expecting us to thrash them, and we’d like to beat them by more than one or two goals but we’ll have to hold our nerve and produce our best performance.”
