Everyone knew this would be a test of the calibre of this Palace team as an impressive West Ham side led convincingly at the break, this was an impressive performance from the Eagles who showed plenty of fight to almost take a deserved share of the spoils.
DATE
1st January 2022
RESULT
Crystal Palace 2-3 West Ham United
VENUE
Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU
OFFICIALS
Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett. Fourth official: Darren England. VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring
DISCIPLINE
BOOKINGS – Ben Johnson (38), Arthur Masuaku (78)
RED CARD – none
GOALS
Michail Antonio (22), Manuel Lanzini (25, 45+4 pen), Odsonne Edouard (83), Michael Olise (90)
ASSISTS
Said Benrahma (22), Declan Rice (25), Michael Olise (83)
TEB VERDICT
It was hard to fathom exactly how Palace found themselves down so heavily at the break as it certainly was not a performance that merited such a disparity. This is a good West Ham side that are clinical and defend well but what transpired in the second half was the fighting spirit which almost got the Eagles what the arguably deserved had that last minute overhead kick had found its way into the bottom corner.
This game proved that this is a special group of players that will performance whoever is asked to pull on the shirt. A shout out to Vicente Guaita for that brilliant double save, the hard working and quick footed Odsonne Edouard and Jordan Ayew who put in a superb performance ones again, and hopefully injury will not put him out of representing his country at the AFCON.
BOB’S POINT OF VIEW
Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.
“For any follower of football, this was a very entertaining game to watch from start to finish. It contained all the necessary ingredients for a Premier League London derby; commitment, high tempo, goals, defensive errors, referee decisions to debate and certainly no little skill to admire.
Unlike the previous game versus Norwich, although we again had the lion’s share of possession, defensive errors were punished by the opposition and a 0-3 scoreline at half time meant the game was effectively, or so it appeared, over to all intents and purposes. The difference between the two teams during the first half was clinical finishing. Palace had the opportunities, striking the woodwork twice, to keep the final result in the balance. The penalty award with the debatable application of VAR (as seen earlier in the Arsenal against City game) against Milivojevic during added time of the first half proved to be critical. Not sure what Milivojevic was trying to do but probably summed up his whole performance. It arguably confirmed how much we missed Kouyate with the midfield often found out of shape defensively.
To be fair our team never gave up during the second half when it would have been easy to accept it wasn’t to be our day. However, the introduction of Olise proved the creative catalyst to a potential comeback. Two fine Olise deliveries into the box, one creating an Edouard finish and the other directly nestling in the back of the net made the last few minutes interesting. We dominated possession but ultimately conceding two goals within three minutes and not converting clear goal scoring opportunities cost us dearly.
Overall, despite the disappointment of the result, it was a very good performance by Palace who certainly deserving of more from the game. To their credit although West Ham were second best for long spells, individual clinical finishing decided the outcome. We can take plenty of positives going forward into the second half of the season. The only downside is the potential of missing Kouyate, Ayew and Zaha for most of January. Olise certainly made an impact from the bench and confirms again that he is a real talent. My man of the match today though goes to Ayew. He has been one of our most consistent players for the past few games and will be missed this month.
Onwards to our next two fixtures (Millwall and Brighton) which may define how our season progresses with a potential FA Cup run and how far up the Premier League table we finish. Up the Palace!”
PLAYER RATINGS
13 Vicente Guaita (6), 2 Joel Ward (6), 6 Marc Guehi (6), 16 Joachim Andersen (6), 3 Tyrick Mitchell (7), 15 Jeffrey Schlupp (7), 4 Luka Milivojevic (6), 12 Will Hughes (6), 9 Jordan Ayew (7), 22 Odsonne Edouard (7), 20 Christian Benteke (6)
SUBSTITUTES – 1 Jack Butland, 5 James Tomkins, 7 Michael Olise (8 – replaced Benteke on 68 mins), 10 Eberechi Eze, 14 Jean-Philippe Mateta (6 – replaced Milivojevic on 60 mins), 19 Remi Matthews, 34 Martin Kelly, 44 Jairo Riedewald (6 – replaced Hughes on 75 mins)
OPPOSITION LINE-UP
1 Fabianski, 5 Coufal, 15 Dawson, 23 Diop, 31 Johnson, 41 Rice, 28 Soucek, 20 Bowen, 10 Lanzini, 22 Benrahma, 9 Antonio
SUBSTITUTES – 7 Yarmolenko, 11 Vlasic (replaced Benrahma on 71 mins), 13 Areola, 16 Noble (replaced Lanzini on 89 mins), 24 Fredericks, 26 Masuaka (replaced Johnson on 45 mins), 33 Kral, 40 Oko-Flex, 42 Alese
POST GAME QUOTES
PATRICK VIEIRA – “It is really difficult because we played some good football and created a lot of chances to win the game. We are disappointed because I think we were the better team. But the difference between the two sides is that they have been building for a few years now. This is a mature team. The experience allowed them to win. At times we were naive. We were also unlucky. We had the best first chances and hit the post. We have to learn and improve. To play well is not enough to win football matches. You have to give them credit. When they had the chances, they took them. We had a couple we did not take. We are learning in a hard way. Conceding those two goals, with more maturity we handle the game in a different way. We will learn. We should at least get a point today. It is the character of the team. We lack experience but what we have is players who look like our fans, who believe to the final minute. We were close but West Ham will be very happy with the win.”
DAVID MOYES – “It was a strange win because we didn’t play so well. At the time we are at and the games we have played I don’t think everybody is playing so well all the time. You might have it for spells. It is hard to control the game for 90 minutes. We had opportunities in the first half when we got our goals but Palace played really well. They had opportunities. The first two were good goals and really important for us as it gave us a platform. We didn’t start well. Probably even more important was the VAR decision for the penalty. I thought the ref was really close to it and didn’t give a handball so I assumed it wasn’t handball. If it is that close you expect him to give it. Maybe they are now waiting on VAR giving that call. But we have had things not go our way and this time it has. I always thought we’d win games but in the Premier League you are always entitled to a little lull now and again. It happens to all the team. It is really difficult to keep standards, all the levels up. I’m glad we are over it and we got three points today.”
MATCH STATISTICS
The Who Scored man of the match was Manuel Lanzini (8.3) while the most shots were by Odsonne Edouard (5). The most tackles were made by Arthur Masuaku (6) and the most dribbles were by Will Hughes and Vladimir Coufal (2).
- Team rating: 6.66 – 6.98
- Total shots: 22 – 10
- Shots on target: 6 – 5
- Possession: 62.2% – 37.8%
- Pass success: 87% – 73%
- Passes: 540 – 335
- Dribbles: 5 – 7
- Aerials won: 17 – 13
- Tackles: 15 – 31
- Fouls: 6 – 17
- Corners: 9 – 1
- Saves: 2 – 4
- Dispossessed: 16 – 11
POSITION IN THE TABLE
At the final whistle, Palace were 11th in the Premier League with 23 points from 20 games played, a point behind Brighton in 10th and a point ahead of Villa in 12th.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
08/01/21 Millwall (a) – FA Cup (12.45pm)
14/01/21 Brighton (a) – Premier League (8pm)
23/01/21 Liverpool (h) – Premier League (2pm)
