Pre-season Palace finished the previous season in 12th place and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, the first under manager
Patrick Vieira.
Martin Kelly and
Cheikhou Kouyaté left at the end of their contracts and player of the season,
Conor Gallagher, returned to Chelsea at the end of his loan spell.
Malcolm Ebiowei and
Sam Johnstone joined after their contracts at Derby and West Bromwich Albion expired while
Cheick Doucouré and
Chris Richards were signed from
Lens and
Bayern Munich respectively. The club went on a pre-season tour to Singapore and Australia to play other Premier League teams; they were defeated by Liverpool and Manchester United and drew against Leeds. Only half the squad were able to make the trip, so there were also games in England against teams from various divisions of the
Football League. In these matches Palace won four and drew the other. The whole squad was able to play in a home game against
Montpellier, which Palace won 4–2.
August Crystal Palace opened the Premier League season with a game against
Arsenal at
Selhurst Park on Friday 5 August. The visitors started the strongest and took the lead with a goal in the 20th minute from a corner. Palace came back into the game, but squandered a couple of chances to equalise and a late own goal from
Marc Guéhi consigned the team to a 2–0 defeat. On the same day,
Christian Benteke was sold to
D.C. United. Their first away game was a 1–1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield. The next game, at home to Aston Villa, saw the team's first win of the season, with
Wilfried Zaha scoring a brace of goals in a 3–1 victory. Palace were drawn away against
Oxford United in the second round of the Carabao Cup, winning the tie 2–0 with youth-teamers
Killian Phillips and
Kaden Rodney making their senior debuts. ==Transfers==