revenge of the sith book went into more detail about the palp/windu fight. mace wasn't winning against palp. palp had way more strength and was powering through maces innate defense against the dark side. the whole scene with palp on the ground and mace standing over him was contrived by palp because he knew anakin was about to show up. if anakin never showed up palp would have just killed mace and then order 66'd the jedi, anakin included.
palp wanted anakin as a tool, but he didn't need him. he never wanted an actual apprentice.
Taarsidath-an halsaam.
Quando il gioco e finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola