CRYSTAL PALACE 2 ASTON VILLA 1

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

In a game of two halves, Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa 2-1 to record their first home win of the season.  Both halves could not have been more contrasting as the first half was mostly scrappy with both teams short of ideas.

With just a few minutes of the game gone, Damien Delaney had to block a shot from Villa’s new acquisition, Rudy Gestede. Just before the hour mark, Gabby Agbonlahor was played in and chased by two Palace defender but Alex McCarthy saved his shot.

Just before the midway point of the half, Jason Puncheon was robbed of the ball ten yards outside the Palace box by Carlos Sanchez who then bore down on the Palace goal but his shot was wide of the goal.

Minutes later, down the other end, Glenn Murray pulled the ball back to Wilfred Zaha in the box but somehow Brad Guzan saved his shot.  Zaha should have given Palace the lead. 

Six minutes before the break, Jack Grealish fizzed a shot cum cross across goal and McCarthy had to push the ball away to safety for a corner.  The game remained scoreless at the break. 

Alan Pardew made two changes, bringing on Jordon Mutch and Dwight Gayle for Murray and Zaha.  Delaney crossed the ball to the far post, where it was met by Bakary Sako but his shot was smothered by Guzan.

Palace thought they had taken the lead when Gayle hit a shot, which came off James McArthur, but on consultation with the assistant referee, the it was ruled out as McArthur was adjudged to be in an offside position.  Palace kept probing looking for the elusive goal.

Joel Ward got down the right and crossed it to Sako, who hit a first time shot that was just wide of the Villa goal.  With 19 minutes of the game left, Palace took the lead.  An in swinging corner taken from the left by Puncheon was met with a header by Scott Dann, which flew into the roof of the net despite a Villa defender’s effort to head it off the line.  Palace deserved to be in front due to their approach in the second half as they were first to almost every ball. Credit also must go to them for not letting the disallowed goal affect them.

A minute later, Sako had a shot saved by Guzan and Puncheon saw his free kick go just wide of the Villa goal.  Villa’s new recruit from Barcelona, Adama Traore went on a run on the right wing and made his way into the Palace box.  He hit a cross, which hit Pape Souare’s outstretched leg and deflected into the Palace net to bring the game level.  The goal, which was totally against the run of play, stunned the Palace crowd.  They say goals change games and all of a sudden Villa had a foothold in the second half and began to press Palace.

 In the 87^th minute, Guzan threw the ball out to his left back Jordan Amavi who tried to beat Dann but was robbed him of the ball.  Dann then crossed it to Sako who curled a low shot with his left foot past Guzan to give Palace the lead for a second time.  In this league if you make a mistake you usually get punished. In a game where Villa looked like they could come away from London with a point, they ended up with nothing due to a mistake by their defender”. 

Palace on the other hand looked much more effective once Zaha was substituted.  Delaney was Palace’s best player as he dealt comfortably with the aerial threat of Gestede.

The Villa boss Tim Sherwood said: ”I thought we played well today especially in the first period when we silenced the crowd in the first half. We just have to look and take the positives out of it. We need to realize that this game is a 90 plus minutes game and we need to see it out better.”

Pardew said: “ Sako was not going to start today.  But then we got bad news about Yannick’s dad. Tim came here today with his system and disrupted us. We needed to make changes in the second half. “