Eagles See Out The Year With Victory On South Coast

We all wanted a reaction to the defeat at home earlier in the week and Palace provided just that with a good win at Bournemouth to see out 2022 in positive fashion.

TIME/ DATE/ VENUE

• 3pm
• 31^st December 2022
• Vitality Stadium, Kings Park, Boscombe, Bournemouth BH7 7AF

RESULT

Bournemouth 0-2 Crystal Palace

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 1 Jack BUTLAND, 23 Malcolm EBIOWEI, 26 Chris RICHARDS, 44 Jairo RIEDEWALD, 25 John-Kymani GORDON, 77 David OZOH

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNSED SUBSTITUTES – 3 Jack STEPHENS, 6 Chris MEPHAM, 17 Jack STACEY, 22 Ben PEARSON, 45 Cameron PLAIN

TEB VERDICT

The perfect reaction to the debacle on Boxing Day was with a win against Bournemouth, and the Eagles made sure they did just that. Without an effort on target for two games in succession was quickly forgotten as goals from Jordan Ayew and Eberechi Eze gave Palace a half time lead, and ultimately victory by the time the final whistle blew.

This was a far better performance, which was not particularly difficult, but the set up from the off looked much more fluid and with the return of Marc Guehi, a much more organised defence.

There were a number of notable individual performances but the stand out was Michael Olise who provided an assist for each goal which ensured all three points were heading back to South London.

POST GAME QUOTES

PATRICK VIEIRA

“I don’t have any doubt on players’ commitment and quality. We knew against Fulham we did not play very well at all. So many aspects of our game were missing. And it was a one off. Of course we will win and lose games but today we played at the level we know we can. We managed to win the game and that is really positive for us.

“It wasn’t comfortable at all. To win matches you need to be focused and concentrate, disciplined. All those aspects we had today and we had the quality. Today was a really good team performance from the first to the last minute.

“We have our goalkeeper coach look at the organisation of the opposition team and he had some ideas about how we could score goals. Today is good to score those goals because we have a quality with Michael on the ball and with Ebs who can shoot outside the box. So today it worked.

“I am not making decisions on one bad performance. I know that players I have been working with and the quality is there. It is to enforce some of the messages to compete at this level. I will never lose faith on the players and what we try to do. Hopefully it is the same for everyone.”

EBERECHI EZE

“With the quality we have in the team we are not worried about creating chances or scoring goals. We know we have that. It is about matching teams off the ball and winning our duals and today that worked for us.

“We knew what their setup was like for corners so it was pretty simple. We saw the spaces and that we could get opportunities from there. They didn’t pick up on the earlier one so having two opportunities at it was helpful.

“We always want to continue to improve and get better. Look at our performances before and see what can be better. With the games coming up we have a good opportunity.”

GARY O’NEIL

“It is the first time I can stand here after a game and say we have fallen well below the standards we have set. The errors in the goals are unacceptable for this level. We have worked hard on set plays and we still concede two from them and the overall performance was nowhere where we need to be.

It is hard to legislate for things you have worked on not happening. There are things in there that should not happen. Palace slow it down, they are a counter-attacking team. You huff and puff but you need something to go your way to give it a spark.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

04/01/23 Tottenham (h) – Premier League (8pm)

07/01/23 Southampton (h) – FA Cup (12.30pm)

15/01/23 Chelsea (a) – Premier League (2pm)