Premier League 2026-27 preview No 8: Crystal Palace

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’ prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 15th

Prospects

After winning a third trophy in the space of 12 months under Oliver Glasner with the Conference League triumph at the end of May, Crystal Palace fans were brought down to earth with a bump at the start of July when the Austrian was unveiled as Nottingham Forest’s new manager. Seeing the man who led the south London club to the first major honours in their history jump ship to the team who many believe played a part in Palace’s demotion from the Europa League was a bitter pill to swallow, even if the highly rated Pierre Sage had been confirmed as Glasner’s replacement three weeks earlier.

While the fans must wait until October for him and Forest to visit Selhurst Park, the Frenchman’s task is now to try to build on Glasner’s unprecedented success while juggling the demands of a Europa League campaign. The departure of Maxence Lacroix has left Palace’s defence without a natural leader and replacing the France defender with a similar character could go a long way to determining how they fare.

Daichi Kamada’s decision to sign a new one-year contract rather than follow Glasner out of the door means that – at the time of writing – eight of the players who started in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester City last year remain at the club. The tricky bit will be holding on to the likes of Daniel Muñoz, Adam Wharton and Ismaïla Sarr until the window closes, with Muñoz attracting interest from Saudi Arabia.

Spending around £80m on Jørgen Strand Larsen and Brennan Johnson in January looks even more mistaken after agreeing a deal with Everton to swap the latter for Dwight McNeil seven months later. That has restricted Palace’s budget this summer and could come back to haunt Sage if he cannot strengthen the squad sufficiently with another marathon season ahead.

Off-field picture

To everyone’s great relief, work finally started on the new main stand at Selhurst Park this summer almost a decade after the plans were first announced. Expected to cost at least £150m and be completed by late 2028 or early 2029, it will increase the capacity of Selhurst Park to 34,000. Yet the financial strain of a much-needed project has complicated matters off the pitch, with Josh Harris, David Blitzer, and Woody Johnson reportedly keen to sell their combined 79% stakes despite Palace’s recent success. It will be up to Steve Parish, the chair who has guided Palace through their best-ever era, to convince them to stay on or find some new partners.

Owner-fan relationship

Having stepped in to help rescue Palace from administration in 2010, lifelong supporter Parish has been instrumental in establishing the club in the Premier League and will always be remembered for leading them to a first major piece of silverware. But that doesn’t mean he is exempt from criticism and there are many fans who blame the 61-year-old for failing to keep hold of Glasner after not strengthening the squad sufficiently last summer after their FA Cup success. Palace are still missing the calming influence and talent-spotting skills of Dougie Freedman, the former sporting director who surprisingly left for Saudi Arabia last March.

The manager

Sage worked wonders at Lens last season in only his second senior post as a manager, guiding them to second place in Ligue 1 before winning the Coupe de France. Having cut his teeth as a youth team coach at Lyon, the 47-year-old from eastern France who stopped playing at the age of 24 to concentrate on his coaching career seized his opportunity when he was promoted to become interim manager in November 2023. But he lasted only a year having been given the job permanently before moving to Lens six months later. Sage has still yet to manage 100 matches at professional level and his appointment looks risky. Palace are banking on him bringing stability.

Star signing

Óscar Mingueza missed out on being part of the Spain squad that won the World Cup but the former Barcelona defender who was signed on a free transfer after his contract with Celta Vigo expired looks an excellent addition. He is capable of playing on the right of a back three but prefers wing-back and was outstanding for Celta last season. Aston Villa and Newcastle were rumoured to have been interested in the 27-year-old, who’s won four caps for Spain’s senior team and came through Barça’s La Masia academy, making 66 appearances. His sister, Ariadna, also plays for Spain.

Stat attack

The biggest challenge facing the new Crystal Palace manager is making the side’s attack more productive. While just seven teams in the 2025-26 Premier League generated more expected goals in open play, only Wolves scored fewer. The gap between the figures was 0.31 per game for Palace, the second-worst mark in the big five leagues behind Pisa (0.36), who finished bottom of Serie A.

Set for a breakthrough

Joél Drakes-Thomas made his senior debut in the Conference League at the age of just 16 years and 192 days in December before becoming Palace’s youngest-ever Premier League player by more than a year two days later. The winger has been a regular for England’s Under-16s and starred for Palace’s Under-18s as they won the Premier League Cup in April, as well as playing 45 minutes for the first team in their FA Cup defeat to non-league Macclesfield. There are high hopes that Drakes-Thomas could be the next big star to emerge from Palace’s academy that was upgraded to category one status in 2020.

World Cup impact

Yéremy Pino only managed 69 minutes in two substitute appearances for Spain during the group stages before suffering a collarbone injury that ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. But the forward still picked up a winners’ medal – the first-ever Palace player to do so. Elsewhere, Sarr continued his brilliant club form with four goals for Senegal, with Kamada and Muñoz making it eight in total for the Palace contingent. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Dean Henderson became the first Palace player to feature for England in a World Cup finals match in the third place playoff against France.

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.