Sam Allardyce has joined Arsene Wenger in blaming the Premier League schedule for his club’s performance.
Then again, the Crystal Palace boss also blamed his players... and “perhaps” himself.
[ MORE: Arsenal “refused to lose” ]
Allardyce said Swansea City’s extra day’s rest -- Swans played Saturday, Palace on New Year’s Day -- made the match an improbable task.
From the BBC:“It’s difficult to take. We have all the science we have, we know the fatigue levels and the high intensity runs the players make and we knew they wouldn’t be able to make them tonight. And they couldn’t. Perhaps I picked the wrong side, I should have changed four or five.
“Whether you’re tired or not you have to play and I told them that at half time. I was baffled with our first-half display, we were lumping the ball to Christian Benteke and who told them to do that? They were confused.”
They were confused. Classic Allardyce.
Big Sam has a pair of reunions coming up -- Bolton in the FA Cup on Saturday and West Ham in the PL the following week -- and Everton, Bournemouth, and Sunderland are after that.
Will Palace drop into the Bottom Three at any point?