Crystal Palace increased the pressure on West Ham as they produce one of the high-scoring football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. After Tomas Soucek scored the game’s first goal early on, Palace responded brilliantly, scoring three goals in the span of 15 first-half minutes to take control of the match. However, the Eagles’ weakness at set-pieces would repeatedly give West Ham lifelines. Before the half, Michail Antonio scored from a corner to cut the deficit to one, but midway through the second half, Eberechi Eze won and converted a penalty to give Palace their two-goal advantage back. But West Ham was back, and Nayef Aguerd nodded in to make up for his foul on Eze and set up a spectacular finish.
Although Palace held on for their first Premier League victory in three games, which moved them up to 11th in the standings and saw Roy Hodgson’s team reach the coveted 40-point mark with four games remaining, West Ham’s potency at set-pieces was not matched by their overall attacking output. With five games remaining to ensure safety, West Ham is still in 15th place, five points above the relegation zone.
Turnstile problems at Selhurst Park caused a 15-minute delay in the start of the game. Crystal Palace opened the game looking like they were making up for lost time in attack, but they paid the price for being reckless in defense as West Ham seized the lead. Soucek scored his third goal of the year from 12 yards after Michael Olise mishandled a corner header. Ayew scored at the near post to restore parity five minutes later, and then Zaha scored his first goal since April 1 by hooking in at the back post to complete the comeback on the stroke of 20.
Two minutes later, Schlupp dispossessed the hesitating Soucek and raced free before tapping in Palace’s third goal, adding insult to injury to West Ham defender Kurt Zouma. But Antonio cut the deficit in half with a close-range header after Soucek flicked on a corner at the near post, which exposed Palace’s weakness at dead balls. When Zaha was brought down in the area by Vladimir Coufal in first-half stoppage time, Palace was upset that they were not given a penalty. However, 66 minutes later, when Aguerd was found to have tugged on Eze as he was racing toward goal, referee Craig Pawson did award Palace a penalty.
Eze stepped up and sent Lukasz Fabianski the wrong way after a VAR review, giving Palace a 4-2 advantage. It would only last for six minutes before Soucek flicked on another corner at the near post for Aguerd to head into the Palace goal. However, it was too late for the subpar Hammers to mount a comeback. For the first time in all competitions, Crystal Palace scored four goals against West Ham, completing the Premier League double over the Hammers for the third time (also in 2013–14 and 2019–20).
“Yes, I believe we are secure before you even begin to ask the question! The athletes displayed great vigor. I am beyond pleased with how my team survived the blows we received after grabbing a two-goal lead,” Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson said. “To be a top-tier football player, you must possess extraordinary resiliency. This group has the makings of a great team and has a strong work ethic and a sense of perseverance. We have strong players, which is why we are where we are. The club’s recruitment efforts have greatly improved the team I previously worked with. The club may anticipate a platform from which they can attempt to advance.”
“This year, VAR has prided itself on avoiding awarding soft penalties, but that would be a very soft penalty,” West Ham boss David Moyes said. “I’m angrier now because of how we played the entire game. Palace performed better and with more quality than we did; we didn’t play well. Although I’ve always taken pride in my teams being fairly difficult to defeat and play against, today we weren’t. For me, that is the most infuriating part. However, this week we lost two crucial decisions that could have prevented us from dropping the points. The line between us receiving anything from games and not is currently quite narrow.”
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