Palace's 50-goal year and two wins in eight: Sage under mounting pressure after Newcastle defeat

Two wins in eight and 50 goals conceded in 2026

Crystal Palace's 2-0 home defeat by Newcastle United on Sunday has intensified the scrutiny on Pierre Sage, leaving the manager under significant pressure little more than three months into his reign at Selhurst Park.

The numbers underpinning that pressure are stark. Palace have won only two of eight Premier League games this season, and one of those – the previous home fixture against Nottingham Forest – was as freakish as it was fortunate, with the Eagles outplayed for much of the first half and inexplicably going in ahead at the interval. The shellacking they sustained at Brighton last week, according to the Guardian's match report, "is the kind of thing that might have got a manager more than a few weeks in the job the sack."

Sunday's defeat also took Palace to 50 Premier League goals conceded in 2026, at least four more than any other side in the competition. Against Newcastle they registered 17 shots worth an expected goals total of 1.69, but only four of those were on target, and Lukas Hornicek was beaten just twice – at the other end.

"There is discontent at Palace, and it is justified."

A victim of circumstance, but the football is not improving

To an extent, Sage is a victim of circumstance. Palace are listing after summer sales, with Maxence Lacroix and Daniel Muñoz joining the now familiar exodus from the club. Nobody could have drawn much confidence from the Forest victory, and the performance against Newcastle offered little reassurance.

For 15 minutes after half-time, Newcastle simply blew the game open. William Osula touched in a Jacob Murphy cross two minutes after the restart, Joe Willock had an effort ruled out for a marginal offside five minutes later, and Harvey Barnes completed a slick passing move six minutes after that. A smattering of boos from the home fans made clear what everybody already knew. Quarter of an hour of proper football had been enough to win the game.

The first half was one of the worst 45 minutes of football in Premier League history, with a pass completion rate of just 72.8% and only two shots on target. There were a couple of early chances – Daichi Kamada sliced his finish after a promising run by Dwight McNeil, Jean-Philippe Mateta dragged a shot wide, and McNeil rolled a low pass through a vacant six-yard box after good work from Yéremy Pino – but that golden age of incident soon passed.

This was not a defeat to a high-flyer or a team in form. Newcastle arrived at Selhurst Park on the back of three defeats in four, having been booed off after losing at home to Aston Villa, and had deployed Dan Burn as an emergency centre-forward in that game in what looked like desperation. Yet they still won comfortably.

"It's hard to have such confidence in Palace," the Guardian's report concluded. Lukas Hornicek had to make two saves around the mid-point of the second half, first from an Adam Wharton curler and then a long-range drive from Darío Osorio, but there was very little threat, very little imagination and very little quality from the hosts.

A bruising October on and off the pitch

The Newcastle loss is the latest entry in a difficult run. On 23 October 2026, Palace collapsed late on in Istanbul, drawing 2-2 with Besiktas in the Europa League after Junior Olaitan came off the bench to equalise, with the hosts finishing the match with 10 men following Umit Akdag's red card. Palace had led through Yéremy Pino and Jean-Philippe Mateta after Wilfred Ndidi's first-half opener for Besiktas.

Individually, there have been flickers. Daichi Kamada, per FotMob's Premier League 2026-27 snapshot fetched on 25 October 2026, has seven appearances, one goal and three assists this season, and Adam Wharton was the man who twice forced Hornicek into action on Sunday. But the wider picture – a squad shorn of key sales, low on confidence, and a manager who cannot have a huge amount of confidence he will still be in his role in a couple of months – points to a club in trouble.