Crystal Palace hit 40-point mark to mark Premier League survival – Zaha battles on with ‘nasty bang’

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace saw off London rivals West Ham 4-3 at Selhurst Park on Saturday, taking the South London outfit up to 40 points in the Premier League and safety from relegation for another season.

But it was anything but straightforward. This was a rollercoaster of a game which had seen the east Londoners go in front inside the 10th minute, before strikes from Jordan Ayew, Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp put the SE25 outfit ahead 3-1 with half-an-hour on the clock.

David Moyes’ side then came within one again in the 35th minute in a frantic first half, but an Eberechi Eze penalty in the 66th minute sealed the three points for the Eagles, despite the Hammers making it 4-3 with 20 minutes remaining.

Zaha had returned to Roy Hodgson’s side after missing the defeat at Wolves on Tuesday due to injury, but suffered a strong challenge from Vladimir Coufal in the 59th minute for which the West Ham defender was shown yellow.

It appeared the Ivorian forward would leave the pitch prematurely, but he continued on until being substituted in the 84th minute.

“He got a nasty bang, Wilf, and great credit to him for carrying on really,” Hodgson told the South London Press.

“I spoke to him. I said it may be a good idea to come off but Wilf said: ‘No, no, no – leave me on’. We then agreed we’ll give it another 10 minutes or so and [see] if you can get through those, because if I left the decision to the medical and sports science department, he would have been off [earlier].

“It was a knee-to-knee injury. Those bangs you get on the knee can be very painful.”

When Eze was brought down in the box by Nayef Aguerd in the 63rd minute the home side were awarded a penalty, but usual penalty-taker Zaha did not grab the ball, instead leaving it for Eze, who sank it home a few minutes later following a VAR check.

So was the earlier knock on Zaha affect his decision not to take the shot himself and hand it to Eze?

“I think it probably did,” said Hodgson. “I must speak to them [but] I think he probably did, maybe. Eze’s good, we’ve got some good penalty-takers, (Michael) Olise’s a good penalty-taker and the penalty-taker at Wolves (on Tuesday), had we got one, would have been Luka Milivojevic, so we’re not we’re not short of them.

“But I still need to speak to them on Monday and find out what went on between them. I was pleased to see it.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD