Crystal Palace’s thrilling victory over Liverpool on Saturday has prolonged their impressive unbeaten streak to 18 games, matching the club’s historical record set in 1969. This is currently the longest unbeaten run in European football.

This is no ordinary undefeated sequence. Oliver Glasner’s exceptional team has faced Liverpool thrice during this stretch, even defeating them on penalties to secure the Community Shield.

Their achievements don’t stop there. They bested Manchester City to clinch the FA Cup, marking their first significant trophy. They also secured victories over Tottenham, drew with both Arsenal and Chelsea, and triumphed over Aston Villa twice.

For this season alone, data giants Opta have Palace joint-top of their expected points table, alongside the Gunners.

All while playing with a back three. Take note Ruben Amorim: it can work if you do it properly.

These feats come in the wake of a challenging summer, which saw them ejected from the Europa League and relegated to the Conference League. Key player Eberechi Eze moved to Arsenal, and captain Marc Guehi nearly signed with Liverpool. The prior summer, Michael Olise left for Bayern Munich. Against these odds, they continue to thrive.

Their success lies in Glasner’s distinct style and structure; his players understand their roles perfectly. Crystal Palace recruits players who seamlessly integrate into their system and perform effectively.

And it’s all built around a rock-solid defence that absorbs pressure and a ruthless, direct style to which teams clearly have no answer.

The backbone of their defense features Guehi, Maxence Lacroix, and Chris Richards, who together have achieved 11 clean sheets in the 20 league matches they’ve started. Their dominance in aerial battles and duels has been pivotal.

But they defend as a team and few are better drilled without the ball than Palace. They know exactly when to keep their shape and to spring the press – and we saw that in the build-up to their opening goal against Liverpool.

Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 system drops into a 5-4-1 when opponents have the ball. The brilliant wing-backs Tyrick Mitchell and Daniel Munoz come into the back line and the two dynamic No 10s, Yeremy Pino and Ismaila Sarr, drop into a narrow midfield line.

Palace are happy to leave the opposition winger free to force teams to go wide because, when they do, they jump into action.

As soon as Virgil van Dijk plays the ball across the pitch, Mitchell jumps out wide and Guehi shifts across. They move as a unit. Mitchell gets there first, wins the ball and Palace spring a counter. They win a corner and, from it, Sarr scores the opener.

WING-BACK WONDERS

Munoz and the ever-improving Mitchell are vital to how Palace’s wing-back system thrives. 

Their tenacity, athleticism, work-rate and tactical understanding is key in allowing Glasner’s side to go from having five players in defence to five players in attack in a matter of seconds. They outnumber opposition attacks, then outnumber opposition defences as they stay wide to stretch the pitch as much as possible.

No defender has covered more ground this season than Munoz, who has already ran 42 miles, while Mitchell is third on the list on 39. 

Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert is the only defender to make more sprints than Munoz. Mitchell is seventh on the list. They are non-stop. And they have the end product to match.

No one has made more tackles or ball recoveries since the start of last season for Palace than Munoz and Mitchell – the latter has made more tackles than any other defender in the league this season – but they have also scored or assisted 16 goals between them in that time, more than a quarter of Palace’s total tally.

Compare that to United’s wing-backs, who have combined for a measly four assists and no goals between them under Amorim.

Unlike the Portuguese, Glasner isn’t wedded to one rigid formation – he adjusts his set-up to suit the players at his disposal. 

‘There’s too much discussion about systems, the system is not important,’ he explained recently. ‘Habits, patterns, how you want your players to behave on the pitch – that’s much more important.

‘I played every single system in my career. I always look at what best suits the players we have. My favourite system is 4-4-2… but we always want to attack with five players.

‘There are different habits. Often we have both wing-backs in the box, or close. Sometimes they are behind the ball and one of the central midfielders arrives in the box. 

‘The players always have clear tasks they have to fulfil in attack and defence. The system is very fluid – what decides if we’re successful is if the players know what we want to do.’ 

MID-BLOCK MASTERS

In a division that has begun to move away from Pep Guardiola-inspired possession obsession to a faster, more direct approach, Palace boss Glasner has long felt right at home. His Eintracht Frankfurt side, whom he guided to the Europa League title in 2022, played in exactly that style.

Palace don’t press high, but they don’t just park the bus either.

Only Burnley have averaged less possession than Palace’s 39.9 per cent this season. And only the Clarets start their attacks from closer to their own goal than Glasner’s side. 

No team has won fewer high turnovers than Palace. They have applied the fewest pressures in the final third. Once they win it, no side moves the ball up the field quicker than Palace’s 2.11 metres per second.

They don’t just camp on the edge of their box, though. Palace love to sit in what tactics nerds call a ‘mid-block’, doing so more often than any other Premier League side when their opponents are building their attacks.

They set themselves in the middle of the pitch, ready to pounce, as they did again in the first half against Liverpool.

Pino saw the chance as Ibrahima Konate dallied on the ball so jumped out of the midfield line, won possession, and Palace flooded forward with Sarr sprinting into the space left behind. It was only a fine save from Alisson that stopped Palace adding a second.

Palace’s No 10s do so much work, both defensively and in attack, which is why Glasner’s system works so much better than everyone else’s.

Look at their average position charts from their victory over Liverpool (below), and you’ll see how Pino often dropped deep, while Sarr was regularly the most advanced player in the line-up – with striker Jean-Philippe Mateta finding the perfect balance between dropping in to hold the ball up and driving into the box. 

Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada have the legs, physicality and quality on the ball in midfield to link defence and attack. Everyone knows their roles.

SET-PIECE THREAT

Just when you think you’ve kept Palace at bay from open play, they kill you at set-pieces too. Palace’s opener against Liverpool came from a corner, their late winner from a bullet long throw into the box.

Palace’s record at set-plays is one of the best in the division. Since the start of last season, only Arsenal have scored more goals from set-pieces than Palace.

They have defenders who dominate you in both boxes. Guehi (4), Lacroix (1) and Richards (1) have all scored since the start of last season. They’ll get you somehow.

‘Twelfth again, who gives a f***’ is how Palace fans’ usual song goes, to the tune of Shakira’s Waka Waka, following their FA Cup triumph.

The song that rang out from Selhurst Park after the full-time whistle on Saturday was something quite different. ‘Now you’re going to believe us, we’re going to win the league.’

Well, don’t count them out just yet.