West Ham United 1-3 Crystal Palace
Enner Valencia 76
Glenn Murray 41
Scott Dann 51
Glenn Murray 63
Alan Pardew may not be everyone’s cup of extremely self-satisfied tea, but even his harshest critics must be impressed with the impact he has had on Crystal Palace.
Until Pardew decided to don his red and blue cape and swoop down to Selhurst Park as a returning hero at the end of December, Palace were in danger of sinking without a trace. Neil Warnock had booked them on a one-way ticket to the Championship. Yet Pardew’s decision to answer the cry for help from the club where he distinguished himself as a player has had a revitalising effect on this side.
Survival is in sight for Palace after they produced the perfect away performance to beat West Ham United at Upton Park for the second successive season, a 3-1 win that was capped by two goals from Glenn Murray, whose afternoon was only slightly marred by a needless red card in the second half.
For West Ham, the disappointment stung. They had viewed this as an opportunity to bring an end to a winless run that now stretches to six matches in all competitions, but they were abysmal throughout and could have lost by more. This was a defeat that will do little for Sam Allardyce’s hopes of earning a new deal at the end of the season.
Aside from the noisy Palace contingent in the Sir Trevor Brooking stand, everyone seemed to be half-asleep during a first half that was best summed up from West Ham’s perspective by a Mark Noble volley that went out for a throw. You knew the quality was low when even Alex Song’s radar was off, Stewart Downing was unable to find space in the congested midfield areas and the service to Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia was poor. West Ham were playing as if Andy Carroll was up front, their paucity of ideas in attack leading to them launching too many long balls that were meat and drink for Damien Delaney and Scott Dann in the Palace defence.
Palace’s plan, to squeeze the space in front of their back four and then use their pace on the break, was effective. Jason Puncheon and Yannick Bolasie were menacing when they ran with the ball and the absence of the injured trio of Fraizer Campbell, Marouane Chamakh and Yaya Sanogo did not lessen Palace’s adventure.
It meant that Murray, whose astonishing late cameo almost salvaged an unlikely point against Arsenal last weekend, was given a rare start and Palace’s lone striker was a constant nuisance. Murray had already squandered three fine opportunities before he opened the scoring shortly before half-time, shooting high and wide with his first effort and twice forcing Adrián to save with his feet, and James Tomkins and Winston Reid were struggling to handle his old-fashioned forward play.
A goal was not just on its way by the time Palace took the lead, it had called ahead to let West Ham know it was coming. Allardyce’s men had grown increasingly sloppy as the half progressed and it was a tame goal to concede. Puncheon, whom Pardew described as a “baller” last weekend, floated a corner into the area from the right and although Murray’s header was on target, Aaron Cresswell should have dealt with it. Instead he sliced his attempted clearance and a wrong-footed Adrián could not stop the ball from trickling into the bottom-left corner.
It was a farce but Palace had been the more incisive side and West Ham could not complain. Other than a Cresswell shot that flew inches over and a free-kick that Noble curled against the bar, with Julián Speroni probably beaten, their threat had been minimal.
Whatever Allardyce said to his players during the break, it did not work. If anything, West Ham were even worse at the start of the second half and Palace deservedly doubled their lead after 51 minutes, another Puncheon corner met by a thumping header from Dann at the far post. Dann beat Reid too easily and he gave Adrián no chance.
Allardyce brought on Nenê for his debut and the Brazilian curled a shot against the right post from 18 yards, but West Ham were a shambles. They were vulnerable whenever they were defending set pieces, unusually so for an Allardyce side, and Murray made it 3-0 when he turned in Puncheon’s free-kick from the left.
However, Murray’s hopes of scoring a hat-trick were ended by his own stupidity. He had already gone close to picking up a second booking when he fouled Reid in the first half and he left Mike Dean with no alternative but to send him off when he caught the West Ham centre-back with a late challenge.
Murray’s dismissal forced Palace to defend and Valencia dragged West Ham back into the game when he swept a shot past Speroni from 20 yards with 14 minutes left.
West Ham had chances after that, yet the most damning indictment of the home side’s performance was that Valencia’s goal was their first shot on target. Next for West Ham? A visit from Chelsea on Wednesday.
Guardian
