Palace End Year On High With Victory Over Brentford

The pressure was on in a fixture where both sides were keen to knock their poor form on the head, but thankfully it was the Eagles who put a performance to secure an impressive to drag themselves back into mid-table.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 3pm – 30^th December 2023
• Crystal Palace 3-1 Brentford
• Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 5 James TOMKINS, 22 Odsonne EDOUARD, 29 Naouirou AHAMDA, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 44 Jairo RIEDEWALD, 52 David OZOH

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 21 Thomas STRAKOSHA, 25 Myles PEART-Harris, 38 Ethan BRIELEY, 42 Valintino ADEDOKUN

TEB VERDICT

Roy Hodgson opted to go with an unchanged line up for the final game of 2023, and it worked perfectly with the players rewarding him. It was not all plain sailing, as this is Palace of course, but conceding so early in the game was a concern. There was nothing to worry about as Palace went about their business and got back on level terms pretty quickly. There was no turning back from that point as Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta starred in a first home victory in a while.

We would be lying if there was not any nerves towards the end as the visitors pressed to get back into the game, and while in game management remains questionable, there was enough in the bank at that point to protect.

Whatever you may think of the current situation in and around the club, this was three points to celebrate and build on in the New Year. There is still work to do and that will be without Jordan Ayew who now heads off to the Africa Cup Of Nations, and he will be sorely missed. However, that presents an opportunity for someone to stake a claim and shine.

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.

“Following a week with some fans questioning Hodgson’s continued tenure as manager at the Club, the team produced an important and well deserved win. Basically whether for or against Hodgson’s approach, he delivers what it says on the tin with the resources at his disposal and guaranteed Premier League survival.

After an inauspicious start today, conceding within two minutes, our crowd responded magnificently fully backing the players ensuring a positive atmosphere was maintained. Not sure though why it took about three minutes for VAR officials to decide it was a legitimate goal.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for us to equalise. Following a precise cross by Ayew, Olise produced a clinical finish at the far post for the second time this week. Eze then finished off a well worked move to ensure we went into half-time with a single goal lead.

We played the first 25 minutes of the second half with high tempo and drive. As a result, we were well rewarded by an exquisite finish by Olise. He is a top-class act. Overall, as things stand, in my opinion, Olise is a better all round player than Zaha was at the same age and unfortunately we may not have the pleasure of seeing him in a Palace shirt for much longer if he continues to perform at this level.

It was disappointing though to see our team then take their foot off the gas and it would have been a progressive decision by Hodgson to bring on a couple of substitutes at the 70-minute stage. Eze for one needed to be rested.

Anyway, we successfully saw the game out to secure a much-needed win leaving us with 5 more wins to secure Premier League status.

Although Olise will quite rightly receive the plaudits for his brace of goals, Mateta was my man of the match. A totally transformed player these past few games. 

With only two league games in the whole of January it will give our players the opportunity to regain full fitness for the business months of the season combined hopefully with two or three additions to the squad in the transfer window.”

POST GAME QUOTES

ROY HODGSON

“I am delighted because it’s so long since we won a game, you forget how hard it is to win a game. You worry when you go ahead when the opposing team attack but throughout the game, I’m really happy with how we defended and attacked. I’m just delighted to have won the game.

Olise against Chelsea was the best player on the pitch alongside Gallagher, since he’s come back from his long injury he’s been brilliant. All the praise that will get heaped on him is well-deserved.

It should give us a lift. In some of the games, we had Luton and Bournemouth one after the other and we didn’t do well. It was a really poor time. We knew we had a very difficult run of games, but we didn’t get many points and we didn’t have much luck on our side against some tough opponents.

The crowd is always with us here. One game against Bournemouth, we underperformed, Bournemouth were good, they voiced their displeasure after that but rightly so, but they were entitled to. In my five and a bit years here, very rarely have the crowd not been with us. Grateful for the fans today, because they’ve pulled us through some difficult moments.”

THOMAS FRANK

“It’s always hard to take a defeat, it’s always very painful. I can’t complain about the effort form the players or the mentality, the difference was the quality and decisiveness in the penalty areas from Palace. That’s why they won the game. We said before the game, we need to stop Eze and Olise and we didn’t.

A minor bit of contact from Wissa in the second half it’s a goal. Mateta’s pass just gets to Eze and it’s a goal. That’s football, we just need to continue with it. What we need to focus on is what we can do, we need to look into training, the first and third goals we conceded. We created a number of opportunities and we need to do more.

You can see my smile, looking forward to getting Ivan Toney back. He’s a great player and a big personality.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

04/01/23 Everton (h) – FA Cup 8pm

20/01/23 Arsenal (a) – Premier League 12.30pm

30/01/23 Sheffield United (h) – Premier League 8pm