5 losses, 0 goals: Palace suffers worst start to season since records began

Roy Hodgson has some work to do.

The veteran manager saw his Crystal Palace side stumble to a 1-0 home loss to Southampton in his first match in charge on Saturday, meaning the club has begun the season with five goalless defeats.

That's the first time an English team has started a top-flight campaign in that manner since the formation of the Football League in 1888.

That sorry record has only been matched twice elsewhere in the English league system, with Hartlepool United (then competing in the 1938-39 Third Division North campaign) and Sunderland (in the 1985-86 second-tier term) previously opening in the same shameful fashion.

Hodgson inherited his new side earlier this week after it had surrendered four losses under his predecessor Frank de Boer. Huddersfield Town, Liverpool, Swansea City, and Burnley all got the better of the Eagles as the Dutch handler unsuccessfully experimented with a totaalvoetbal formula in Croydon.

The awful start to the term lurched into a fifth match, when Steven Davis' sixth-minute opener was the only goal in Southampton's visit. Crystal Palace fired 14 shots in the direction of Fraser Forster's net, but only three of those efforts hit the target.

The Crystal Palace hierarchy will hope Hodgson's more pragmatic approach yields miraculous results over the coming weeks. The Eagles' next two Premier League matches are away at Manchester City and Manchester United, before they return home to entertain reigning champion Chelsea at Selhurst Park.

For the smallest sense of relief, Crystal Palace fans can refer to the worst-ever start to begin a Premier League season. Southampton scored twice in its first five matches of the 1998-99 season, but lost each tie and limped to a goal difference of minus-14, compared to Palace's current damage of minus-8.

Somehow, the Saints were still in the Premier League for the 1999-2000 season.