Wharton shows class as Crystal Palace draw in final pre-season game

Crystal Palace’s return to South London following their tour of the United States saw the Eagles draw with Nantes in their final pre-season action ahead of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign.

After impressive results against Wolves and West Ham during Crystal Palace’s tour of the United States, the South London club called a close to their pre-season action with a draw against Ligue 1 side, Nantes, at Selhurst Park.  Sunday’s action saw the return of Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi, with both getting their first minutes ahead of the new campaign, after being part of Gareth Southgate’s EURO 2024 squad that made it all the way to the final. 

With uncertainty surrounding Guehi’s future at Palace, the 24 year-old, who is rumoured to be Newcastle bound, captained the side, featuring on the left hand side of Joachim Anderson and Chris Richards in Glasner’s characteristic 5-2-3 formation as the Eagles drew.  After Palace struggled to break down a deep lying Nantes in the opening exchanges, they found themselves punished when Huddersfield loanee, Sorba Thomas, delivered an outswinging corner for Nantes captain, Jean-Charles Castelletto, to head home.

Following the break, Palace looked to raise the intensity, with Wharton and Hughes dictating the play in the midfield. The Eagles found their breakthrough in the 60th minute when new signing, Daichi Kamada, levelled from a low Tyrick Mitchell cross.  The remaining half hour would follow a similar story to the opening hour as both sides failed to fully commit ahead of their respective season openers next weekend. The draw against Nantes marked an unbeaten pre-season for Crystal Palace, and the whole club will now look forward to the 2024/25 campaign with a sense of optimism following the impressive form that the team have enjoyed under Glasner.

Expectations high for Palace’s star youngster

While Sunday’s pre-season friendly marked a largely uninspiring afternoon for Crystal Palace ahead of next weekend’s season curtain raiser against Brentford, one positive that can be taken from the game is the assured display from Wharton.  Throughout the game, Wharton oozed class; whether he was completing neat one twos with his teammates or clipping left footed deliveries into the box, the defensive midfielder showed just why he is rated so highly by many within SE25, receiving a standard ovation as he made way on the hour mark.  After Wharton made the step up from Championship side, Blackburn, to the Premier League, few were expecting the young English midfielder to take to life so quickly at Crystal Palace.

However, Wharton quickly settled in, excelling alongside Will Hughes in the centre of the park as he failed to miss a single game in the Premier League following his £22m arrival.  After the 20 year-old’s inclusion in Gareth Southgate’s EURO 2024 squad, ambitions have skyrocketed for the young prodigy, despite the player still having only featured in the Premier League for just 6 months.  The defensive midfielder has impressed Palace fans, with his dogged displays often winning the ball deep inside his own half before moving the ball on to facilitate constant Palace attacks.

According to fbref.com, Wharton’s defensive work is among the best in the game, ranking in the 95th percentile for tackles and 84th for interceptions.

New signing, Daichi Kamada, impresses in front three

While Michael Olise’s £50m transfer to Bayern Munich represented a blow to Palace’s attacking prowess, Glasner may have already found a suitable replacement in the shape of former Frankfurt midfielder, Daichi Kamada.

Edouard leads the line again for Palace but a transfer may be imminent
While Crystal Palace’s, inform Jean-Philippe Mateta, has spent the summer playing for France in the Paris Olympics, Odsonne Edouard has dedicated himself to leading the line for the Eagles in the absence of Palace’s prolific striker.

Over the course of the first hour against Nantes, Edouard cut a largely frustrated figure as he struggled to impact proceedings and get up to the pace of the game, with the striker eventually being replaced by Jordan Ayew.Since Edouard made the switch to Palace from Scottish giants, Celtic, where the number nine had enjoyed a largely fruitful spell, scoring 64 goals across just 106 appearances in the Scottish Premiership, the Frenchman has struggled to establish himself in SE25.

The impressive form of Jean-Philippe Mateta, who hit the back of the net 13 times in the final few months of the season under Glasner, has now seen the striker fall even further behind in the picking line.

With just 12 months left remaining on the contract of Crystal Palace’s number 22, rumours are rife as to whether Edouard will choose to pursue pastures a new after a difficult three seasons at Selhurst Park.