Eagles Return To Winning Ways In The Premier League

Two teams who got themselves into the last eight of the League Cup in midweek met at a wet and blustery Selhurst Park, but it was the hosts who took the points from an evenly matched contest in the first of three games in a week for Palace.  

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 12 Christantus UCHE, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 21 Romain ESSE, 24 Borna SOSA, 44 Walter BENITEZ, 59 Rio CARDINES

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 3 Rico HENRY, 5 Ethan PINNOCK, 12 Hakon VALDIMARSSON, 15 Frank ONYEKA

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“It’s a very, very important and good win. It’s always about managing the load of the players. But at least training long throw-ins they don’t have to run a lot. It would be stupid for us not to train on set-plays. Every third goal is scored from set-plays. That means you have to accept it, that is the game. It’s not just this year, set pieces have always played a crucial part. We’ll always have a focus on this. In tight games, it can help you win. Today it helped us, that’s why we’re all pleased and delighted. We didn’t expect an own goal, but both teams have tall players. We know when we get the ball in the right areas, anything can happen.”

JEAN-PHILIPPE MATETA

“I feel fantastic. We needed that win and I’m very happy. I see Jefferson take the ball and as a striker you have this instinct to move. I touch the ball with the right part of my head and then I knew it was a goal. We need to keep trusting each other. It’s all about the team, I can’t do this by myself. It’s fantastic to be inside the dressing room, it’s always a pleasure to play with this team. It’s a good atmosphere inside and I hope we win more games. We’ll try to win as many as possible.”

MATCH STATISTICS

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.

“Due to our recent poor record against Brentford, there may have been some nerves before the game especially against a decent team who were also in good form. Although as the home team it may sound rather negative to begin with commenting on defence, but our structured set up combined with constant pressing out of possession ensured that Brentford rarely threatened.

We regularly forced them into cul-de-sacs or just cheaply giving away the ball. Angles into their attacking players were regularly closed off causing Brentford players to often resort to aimless long balls or deep crosses into the box which were easy to defend. Their main threat was from long throws where again we defended effectively.

So from such a solid structure we were able to control the game for long periods. Mateta’s goal before half time following a flick on by Lerma was just reward for our first half performance. The second goal from a Lerma long throw just after half time effectively settled the outcome with Brentford rapidly running out of creative ideas to unlock our defence. Our back three dealt comfortably with any threats and Henderson had very little to deal with.

Offensively we regularly asked questions of Brentford’s defence with both Pino and Kamada displaying excellent technical skills in possession. Glasner has some good realistic midfield combinations at his disposal especially with Wharton to return. Overall a very good team performance and a well earned three points to maintain our challenge for a top 10 position in another very competitive Premier League season.

Although an honourable mention for Richards, my man of the match goes to Lerma. It was one of his best performances in a Palace shirt. “

TEB VERDICT

After beating Liverpool at the end of September, the Eagles had a rough October having lost their unbeaten record and not finding a win in the league. The month of November kicks off and we have that first victory in four games.

This was a close-run thing between two sides in good form but Palace put in a professional performance to get the three points, and perfect preparation for the next league game which comes against Brighton next weekend.

The game began with the two teams trading misplaced passes and lacking real quality but the hosts found that with the opening goal from a very well worked set piece. The second was all down to the pressure put on the visiting defence and those long throws, this time from Jefferson Lerma.

It looks like the victory at Anfield in midweek did the players good as they showed a lot of confidence both defensively and going forward.

There were several notable performances all across the pitch but that back three of Lacroix, Guehi, and Richards was immense.

Let’s hope we can carry this form into European competition in midweek with AZ Alkmaar coming to South London, and an opportunity to make up for that surprise defeat against AEK Larnaca.

UPCOMING FIXTURES