Match Facts
- Date – 28th November 2015
- Venue – Selhurst Park
- Attendance -24,833
- Referee – Stuart Attwell
- Bookings – Zaha, Mbemba
- Goals – Cisse (10), McArthur (14, 90), Bolasie (17, 47), Wilfried Zaha (41)
- Star Eagle – Yannick Bolasie (9.6)
Match Review
Crystal Palace produced a fine performance to blow away the Magpies and show that they can score goals at Selhurst Park.
A brace from Yannick Bolasie and James McArthur, and a single goal from Wilfried Zaha ensured Palace were not going to leave Selhurst empty handed for a second time in a week.
Alan Pardew opted for the same team that started Monday evening and when Newcastle United took the lead through Papiss Cisse it looked as though deja-vu was going to repeat itself.
Daryl Janmaat skipped past Jason Puncheon with ease and delivered a cross, and Cisse was there to nod the ball into the corner. It was such a soft goal to give away. But that seemed to spark Palace into life, and shortly after going behind McArthur’s deflected effort leveled proceedings and from there only one team was going to triumph.
The front three of Connor Wickham, Bolasie, and Zaha caused Newcastle’s defence all sorts of problems. Zaha was skipping past Paul Dummett with ease while Bolasie was giving his international teammate Chancel Mbemba the run around. Wickham had his best game for Palace, overpowering Fabio Coloccini all the time.
The second goal came from another devastating counter-attack. Wickham fired the ball across the box, and Zaha’s miss-control fell kindly for Bolasie who scored only his second Premier League at Selhurst.
Newcastle offered nothing, and Palace added a third when again the instrumental Wickham found Zaha at the back-post. Zaha’s volley was a combination of foot and shin, but it did not matter as the ball looped over the Newcastle players to give Palace a two goal cushion heading into half time.
Palace immediately added a fourth straight after the break as Bolasie grabbed his second of the game, to ensure the points were firmly in the grasp of Pardew and his team. It was a simply goal for the DR Congo international as he met a flick on from a free kick to tap in at the back-post.
The rest of the half flew by with Palace in complete control and the Newcastle players just swanning around waiting for the final whistle. Palace did have a few chances to add more goals with Bolasie, Pape Souare, Joel Ward and Jason Puncheon all going close.
It was Scotsman McArthur who made sure a fifth came as he converted from a tight angle to put the gloss on what was a superb display from the Eagles.
Player Ratings (courtesy of Who Scored)
- Wayne Hennessey (6.2) – Little to do all afternoon, the Cisse goal was well directed, and in fairness he could not do much about it.
- Joel Ward (7.8) – Getting back to his best after injury, was good supporting attacks, and also solid when defending a rare Newcastle foray.
- Scott Dann (6.8) – Composed and seemed to shrug off his mistake against Sunderland well, only had to deal with Cisse, and he sniffed out any threat the Senegalese was going to cause.
- Damien Delaney (7.9) – Aanother assured performance alongside Dann, the Irishman marshalled the defence well, even though it was not the busiest of afternoon for our defence.
- Pape Souare (6.8) – Always joining the attacks, and put in some dangerous crosses, he really is adapting to the Premier League now with plenty more to come.
- James McArthur (9.0) – The Scottish international was superb yet again, he just did not stop running, and it was nice to see him get two goals.
- Yohan Cabaye (7.4) – Busy as usual and gave that finesse in the middle of the park. Did not manage to get a goal against his former club, but he did well. Replaced by Chung-Yong Lee (6.3) on 75 minutes who returned from an injury lay off, keeping the ball ticking over but we have not seen the best of him yet. If he stays injury free he could become a little gem for us.
- Jason Puncheon (7.2) – After Monday’s performance he was a million times better, but he let Janmaat skip past him too easily for Newcastle’s goal. He was industrious, and produced some wonderful crosses and special moments in the match.
- Wilfried Zaha (8.3) – On fire yet again, terrorising Dummett all afternoon and his goal was just reward. He received a booking for diving. Replaced by Mile Jedinak (6.6) on 67 minutes who came on to shore up the midfield allowing Cabaye and McArthur to push on. The club captain still has a role in this team.
- Yannick Bolasie (9.6) – By far the star of the show, a constant menace with two well taken goals. It was a shame he could not get his hat-trick, but it was a terrific performance.
- Connor Wickham (8.9) – His best performance for Palace, even though he has rarely started because of injury. His hold up play was good and he got three assists, the only thing missing was a goal. Replaced by Patrick Bamford (6.2) on 86 minutes once the game was done and dusted. The Chelsea loanee is really going to find it hard to get into the side after a performance like this.
Unused substitutes – Julian Speroni, Joe Ledley, Marouane Chamakh, Martin Kelly
Match Statistics
The Who Scored man of the match was Yannick Bolasie (9.6) who also managed the most shots in the game (5). The most tackles were made by Daryl Janmaat and Joel Ward (5) and Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha (4) had the most dribbles.
- Team rating: 7.53 – 6.11
- Total shots: 19-7
- Shots on target: 8-2
- Possession: 54% – 46%
- Pass success: 84-74
- Dribbles: 13-9
- Tackles: 19-20
- Corners: 7-5
- Dispossessed: 8-9
Premier League Table
| 4 | Arsenal | 13 | 12 | 26 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 13 | 13 | 24 |
| 6 | Crystal Palace | 14 | 5 | 22 |
| 7 | Everton | 14 | 8 | 21 |
| 8 | West Ham United | 13 | 4 | 21 |
