There is something rather remarkable about the fact that, 16 games into the Premier League season, none of sixth-placed Crystal Palace’s goals have been scored by a striker.
Alan Pardew’s side have been one of the surprise packages of the first half of the campaign.
They currently find themselves ahead of Liverpool, level on points with Tottenham Hotspur and just three behind Manchester United in the final Uefa Champions League place.
While Palace’s defensive record has been their key strength this term – only four teams have conceded fewer than their 15 goals – they have still found the back of the net on 21 occasions, more than Liverpool and the same amount as United.
Centre-forwards Connor Wickham, Dwight Gayle, Frazier Campbell, Marouane Chamakh and Patrick Bamford may have all failed to put the ball past a Premier League goalkeeper, but Palace’s wingers, midfielders and defenders have chipped in with goals of their own.
Leading the way is Yohan Cabaye, the France international midfielder who unexpectedly moved to Selhurst Park from Paris Saint-Germain for a club record fee of around £10 million (Dh54.7m) in the summer, with five strikes so far.
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Palace’s signing of Cabaye was the perfect demonstration of the growing strength, significance and financial muscle of the Premier League’s “middle class”.
The ever-increasing value of domestic and foreign television deals helped propel the English top flight’s 20 teams into this year’s list of the 40 richest clubs in world football released by auditing firm Deloitte at the start of 2015.
Sides such as Palace, Stoke City, West Ham United and Swansea City were then able to showcase that wealth with acquisitions in the summer that would previously have been beyond them just a few years ago. Cabaye, for example, was linked with Serie A giants Roma before he completed the switch to Palace in July.
It is unclear whether those reports were genuine or manufactured, but it was a substantial coup for Palace, a team who have completed only two full seasons in the top tier in the past decade, to land a player who departed Newcastle United in January 2014 as one of the Premier League’s best players and who started four of France’s five matches at the World Cup in Brazil a few months later.
Cabaye’s quality has been clear throughout this campaign, with his contributions extending far beyond his respectable goalscoring return.
Despite exceeding expectations by finishing in the top half of the table in 2014/15, Palace often struggled at home, where wary opponents would deny them the space to launch the rapid counter-attacks that brought them so much success away from Selhurst Park.
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This term, though, Palace’s 26 points have been split equally between home and away encounters.
Cabaye has been essential to that turnaround, providing the invention and craft in midfield that is needed to unlock deep and compact defensive units.
His superb range of passing allows Palace to switch the play between the flanks quickly, while he has also displayed a bite and tenacity in the defensive phase of play that is lacking in many other playmakers. Indeed, only Leicester City’s superb N’Golo Kante has made more interceptions than Cabaye this season.
Although Palace are only three points adrift of the top four at present, a Europa League place is the more realistic target for Pardew’s men.
Even that objective will be difficult to attain, with Leicester looking increasingly likely to challenge the traditional powers for the Uefa Champions League spots and Liverpool almost certain to improve in the coming months.
Everton, West Ham and Saturday’s opponents, Stoke, will also fancy their chances of a top-seven finish in this most open of Premier League campaigns.
Even reigning Premier League champions Chelsea, currently languishing in 16th, could make up the current 10-point margin if they get their act together in these post-Mourinho days.
For Palace to even be spoken about as European contenders is a sign of the fantastic progress they have made over the past few years.
The addition of Cabaye in the summer was a major off-field statement. With continental competition in sight, Palace are hoping the midfielder can now elevate them to new levels on the pitch.
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