Tuesday 8 November 2022

Tired West Ham beaten by rampant Crystal Palace

West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace Crystal Palace emerged deserved winners of this hard fought derby game against West Ham at the London Stadium. The young Palace side were more inventive throughout, as West Ham huffed and puffed, lacking the imagination needed to open up the visitors. It was somewhat against the run of play that West Ham took the lead on the half hour.Thilo Kehrer fed the ball inside to Lucas Paqueta, who laid the ball into the path of Said Benrahma, who steadied himself before rifling the ball home from just outside the penalty area. A sloppy piece of defending five minutes before half time gifted Palace the equaliser. Craig Dawson played the ball wide on the right, stretching Kehrer, which let Eberechi Eze, dispossess him and cross the ball into the path of Wilfred Saha, who slammed home. Palace started the second half strongly, with Eze and Michael Olise going close. Zaha then looked to be through on goal before a crucial saving tackle from Dawson. The substitution of Benrahma half way through the second half was greeted with boos from home fans, who loudly applauded one of West Ham's most inventive players on the day, as he left the field to be replaced by Manuel Lanzini. It later emerged that Benrahma had been a fitness doubt on the day, helping prompt the early withdrawal. By contrast the replacement of Tomas Soucek with Flynn Downes drew applause. Palace looked set to take the lead, when Saha put Eke through on goal but the midfielder lost his footing at the crucial moment. West Ham's best moment of the second half came when Lanzini put Michail Antonio away. He appeared to be impeded by the keeper, leading referee Paul Tierney to award a penalty. The decision though was overturned, after a VAR check. The game looked set for a draw, when two minutes into injury time the ball came out to Olise, who stepped inside to curl an exquisite shot beyond a diving Lukasz Fabianski into the far corner. The goal stunned West Ham fans but they could not complain on a day when their side were second best all afternoon. There is much for manager David Moyes to sort out including the dip in form of £30 million summer signing Gianluca Scammaca and who is the club's best right back? Moyes was magnanimous in defeat, conceding Palace were the better team. "Recent performances have given us confidence. Yet you have to say Crystal Palace played better," said Moyes."We are doing ok but can do better." Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira felt his side deserved to win. "We played some good football at times and deserved to win," though, he felt that there is still much to work on.

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