The lowdown on West Ham 0 Crystal Palace 2 – Could better summer recruitment have the Eagles dreaming of Europe like Forest and Bournemouth?
BY ADAM SELLS
Crystal Palace came away with three points from the London Stadium following a solid, professional performance on Saturday afternoon.
Here is the lowdown on the match.
THE LINE-UPS
Palace: Henderson, Munoz, Richards, Guehi, Lacroix, Mitchell, Kamada, Hughes (Clyne 90), Eze (Nketiah 78), Sarr (Devenny 68), Mateta (Schlupp 90).
Subs not used: Turner, Kporha, Rodney, Doucoure, Riad.
West Ham: Fabianski, Mavropanos, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Emerson (Orford 57), Cresswell (Ings 57), Paqueta (Scarles 57), Rodriguez (Soler 45), Soucek, Kudus, Alvarez (Guilherme 83).
Subs not used: Areola, Coufal, Irving, Casey.
SNAPSHOT OF THE GAME
For the second time Oliver Glasner’s men secured a 2-0 away victory for the second time in four days.
Not unlike Wednesday night’s encounter at the King Power Stadium, at times it was not pretty, but the Austrian deserves huge credit for grinding pout victories in a controlled fashion without a huge arsenal of attacking options.
TACTICAL APPROACH
Glasner stuck with his trusted 3-4-2-1 formation with a team that pretty much picks itself currently.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was opting to start with Daichi Kamada alongside Will Hughes in the centre of midfield ahead of Cheick Doucoure following Jefferson Lerms’s illness in midweek.
Palace’s back three were completely dominant to the point that the home side, shorn of the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Niclas Fullkrug and Michail Antonio, did not muster a single shot on target, with Dean Henderson enjoying possibly his quietest afternoon of the season.
The Eagles have kept three clean sheets in a row in all competitions, three in the last five Premier League encounters and have the best goals-against record away from home in the top flight.
STAR MAN
Jean-Philippe Mateta – The rise of the French striker continues. His transformation over the past twelve months or so has been incredible.
BEST MOMENT
Latching on a clever Eberechi Eze pass the big striker carried the ball before drilling his shot beyond Lukasz Fabianski from twenty yards.
MOAN OF THE MATCH
Palace are finding a way to win even when not at their best offensively. The signing of Romain Esse will help in this respect.
With the current run of form, probably the biggest aim is a consistent level over ninety minutes. Of late, Palace have really upped their game after half-time and Glasner will be hoping that his team start games on the front foot more often.
TALKING POINTS DOWN THE PUB
After a slow start and despite huge deficiencies in the squad, Palace have now just been beaten once in eleven Premier League games.
There is now a healthy gap between them and the relegation zone of eleven points, enabling Glasner’s men to look up the table rather than fearing the drop.
The big question is, looking at the likes of Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth having a serious tilt at the top four, could Palace have done the same with better recruitment in the summer?
The lack of attacking options has severely hampered the ability to turn defeats into draws and draws into wins in the first part of the season.
With Palace only being beaten by more than the odd goal three times in seven defeats and having drawn nine, garnering ten further points from twenty-two games would have had the club knocking on the door of Champions League football.
WHAT THE BOSS HAD TO SAY
“Today was an excellent performance.
“We controlled the game and we didn’t give West Ham a clear chance to score. We scored our goals in the right moment.
“When they tried to get the equaliser, we decided the game with the result and the performance.
“At Leicester, I was just pleased with the result.”
PICTURE: ALAMY