After a stellar end to last season that saw Crystal Palace beat Manchester United 4-0 and climb up the Premier League table under the guidance of Oliver Glasner, there was an expectation that the South Londoners would be just as potent this season.
Unfortunately, that just hasn’t been the case, and after 11 games, the Eagles are down in 18th place with just seven points to their name.
Worse yet, summer signing Eddie Nketiah is now out injured with a hamstring issue he supposedly picked up in external training sessions.
The former Arsenal ace hasn’t quite hit the ground running at Selhurst Park, and he’ll have to up his game when he returns, as the club could already have the ideal Jean-Philippe Mateta heir in one of their academy youngsters.
Nketiah & Mateta’s form in 24/25
So, following his £30m move from the Emirates in the summer transfer window, there was a lot of hope and an element of expectation that Nketiah would come in and help elevate Palace’s attack.
While he has certainly looked good here and there and shown his undeniable quality in glimpses, he has been underwhelming in front of goal, which is ultimately a striker’s bread and butter.
In his nine appearances for the Eagles, he has scored just a single goal, a single goal that came in the League Cup against Queens Park Rangers, and not in any of his seven Premier League appearances.
However, while this lack of goals is a concern, the good news is that the club are not overly reliant on their summer signing, as Mateta is still seen as the first choice number nine by many.
The Frenchman hasn’t been quite as lethal as he was in the latter half of last season this year, but he still has a tally of five goals and one assist in 14 appearances across all competitions, which isn’t dreadful considering the form Palace are in overall.
Furthermore, should Nketiah continue to underdeliver on the goals front, the club could have their own answer down the line in an exciting academy gem.
Crystal Palace’s exciting academy gem
Now, while Palace are blessed with an abundance of talented youngsters in their academy, from Franco Umeh-Chibueze to Jemiah Umolu, the gem we are talking about is 19-year-old Zach Marsh.
The promising teenager joined the Eagles youth setup as a 16-year-old in February 2022, and in the two and a bit years since, he has become an incredibly exciting prospect, as evidenced by the club giving him his first professional contract in October last year.
It’s easy to see why the club would want to keep him in South London, as in just 50 appearances across the U18s and U21s, the goalscoring “monster”, as dubbed by content creator HLTCO, has found the back of the net 31 times and provided 19 assists to boot.
Zach Marsh’s youth record | ||
|---|---|---|
Team | U18s | U21s |
Appearances | 37 | 13 |
Goals | 29 | 2 |
Assists | 16 | 3 |
Goal Involvements per Match | 1.21 | 0.38 |
That means the teenage dynamo has averaged a goal involvement every single game for the Eagles youth teams, and while his rate of return has slowed slightly with the U21s, that’s easily explained by it being his first season with them and the fact he turned 19 just last month.
Ultimately, it’s probably too soon in his development to be moving him up into the first team and throwing him right into the deep end.
However, given how well he has played over the last year or so, it does feel more like a matter of when and not if, he gets his chance with the senior side, and then, Nketiah will really have to start looking over his shoulder.
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