Premier League Game of the Week: West Bromwich Albion 1-5 Crystal Palace

It started with an own goal, granted but it ended with the redemption of Christian Benteke as Crystal Palace bagged a superb victory over West Bromwich Albion winning 5-1.

Crystal Palace have been hit and miss this season, for every win over Manchester United at Old Trafford there has been defeats against Newcastle and Burnley and the result has seen Roy Hodgson’s team already become a mid table team. Too good to get involved in a relegation dog fight but too inconsistent to push for Europe. At the weekend there was evidence for the former.

The own goal to open the scoring was like a stake in the heart for Slaven Bilic’s team who unlike Palace are going to face a fight for survival. Coming into this game West Brom had lost 60% of their games, but had given up wins for draws, with just one victory so far this season which came against Sheffield United the one team even worse than the Baggies.

But the home side struck back quick through a neat shot by Conor Gallagher who was incidentally set up by Darnell Furlong who had scored the own goal moments before, the first redemption of the match. But much credit would also have to go to Semi Ajayi whose world class pass to open up Palace set up the goal.

It was a first half that West Brom played well in, four shots on target to Palace’s one, and the half finished 1-1. But there would still be problems for West Brom after Matheus Pereira was sent off. He fell in a clash and on first look it looked like he caught his studs on Patrick van Aanholt. It seemed harmless enough but perhaps VAR was right to call back the incident. Pereira had his eyes locked on the Palace player and was sent off. Without that there could have been much optimism for Bilic, but he would never have foreseen for what was to come. It would be a painful 45 minutes that would see a further 4 goals with 10 men.

The red card had hampered the home side and took the wind out of them, and it was something Palace could feel as the 2nd half kicked off. Soon it would be 2-1 to Palace after a beautiful strike from Wilfried Zaha who is living up to his £80 million price tag from last summer, when there were reports he would leave the club. Zaha would go on to score again.

But perhaps it was a day for Christian Benteke to remember, his goals were not memorable but they were important for a player who has come under a lot of pressure for not producing the goods at Palace, well now he scored 2 goals in one game and his confidence looked reinstalled. It was telling how West Brom had given up, after having their five shots on target in the first period they managed none in the second half to Palace’s five.

Next week it is back to the hard grind for Palace who face league leaders Tottenham, at least they are at home but the Eagles will have to bear in mind that Jose Mourinho’s team have lost just once this season.

For West Brom they are in 19th with six points. Fulham give them hope and it means a win could see Bilic’s team escape the bottom three next weekend. The problem is they face a tricky tie away to Newcastle. You sense that Bilic’s time is running out though and he will have to start picking up the points.

As for Roy Hodgson,the veteran manager is having a very solid season and maybe the form of Benteke and Zaha will make it a memorable one.

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Premier League: Best 11 Players from Week 27

Let’s take a look below at the best 11 performing players in the Premier League as European finishes hot up with just 11 games left to play.

Formation: 4-4-2:

Goalkeeper: Ederson- Manchester City 7pts

It might seem normal to pick out Ederson for Manchester City but the player had to come up against the 3rd best side in the league in Leicester and made some great saves and City were away from home in game they won 1-0. That was Ederson’s 9th clean sheet of the season.

Defender: Romain Saiss- Southampton 7pts

Wolves had a great and commanding 3-0 victory over Norwich to boost their European hopes and Saiss was part of a defence that kept a clean sheet and he assisted in a goal.

Defender: Philllip Bardsley- Burnley 6pts

Stalwart Bardsley helped clean a keep sheet as Burnley won their game 3-0 and he also scored a goal but he got booked and lost some points. But he has been very solid this season.

Defender: Ashley Westwood- Burnley 5pts

Westwood isn’t seen too many times on the weekend best players, but he put in a very good performance at the weekend and made some crucial tackles and that was the players 10th clean sheet of the season.

Defender: Patrick van Aanholt- Crystal Palace 9pts

Patrick van Aanholt was spectacular in earning 9 points at the weekend as Palace beat Newcastle. The score finished 1-0 so he kept a clean sheet and he also scored the only goal of the game which turned out to be the winner and a much needed 3 points for the club.

Midfielder: Diogo Jota- Wolves 10pts

Dioja Jota earned a fantastic 10 points at the weekend as Wolves beat Norwich 3-0 and it wa down to Jota who scored the opening 2 goals he now has 5 goals for the season and looks back to his best.

Midfielder: Bruno Fernandes- Manchester United 8pts

Bruno Fernandes has started his career off at Manchester United very well and the player opened the scoring and then assisted in the last goal as United beat Watford 3-0.

Midfielder: Riyad Mahrez- Manchester City 4pts

Riyad Mahrez helped his club beat his former one as City ran out 1-0 winners against Leicester. The only goal was scored by Gabriel Jesus and it was Mahrez who made the assist. That was Mahrez’s 8th assist of the season!

Midfielder: Neal Maupay- Brighton 4pts

Brighton are under pressure but they got a very good 1-1 draw away to Sheffield United at the weekend, where many expected them to lose. Maupay got the goal for the away side which was so important for them and he has now scored 8 goals this season.

Striker: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang- Arsenal 8pts

Arsenal were involved in a five goal thriller as they beat Everton 3-2. Aubameyang scored 2 goals and now has 17 and is joint top of the goalscorers list in the Premier League with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy.

Striker: Shane Long- Southampton 4pts

Shane Long scored just his 2nd goal of the campaign as Southampton beat Aston Villa 2-0 in a crucial win. That keeps the team up there and Villa back in fighting for survival.

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EPL Best XI – Week 33

chriswood

With another reduced number of teams in Premier League action this weekend due to the ongoing FA Cup competition, there were only a few sides to select from for this week’s “Best XI” – though there has been a nice spread of action, with games on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Everton continued their impressive performances against the big teams this season when they beat Arsenal 1-0 at Goodison Park, while Burnley earned a hugely impressive – and vitally important – away win at Bournemouth. Leicester and Crystal Palace also picked up wins on the road at Huddersfield and Newcastle respectively, while Liverpool’s Friday night trip to Southampton also saw them take the points. Let’s go for a 4-3-3 and see which players performed the best!

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EPL Player of the Week – Patrick van Aanholt (Crystal Palace)

vanaanholt0419It really is saying something when there are three standout contenders for the Premier League’s best player the previous weekend, and all three of them are defenders! With an impressive amount of 2-0 and 2-1 results last weekend, the goalscoring defender was clearly always going to reign as king – and on this occasion that person would be none other than Crystal Palace defender Patrick van Aanholt. The other two in the mix – Leicester star Wes Morgan and Everton’s Kurt Zouma (on loan from Chelsea) missed out on the most trivial of margins – they each played 94 minutes, while van Aanholt played 95! He helped the Eagles to a 2-0 win over Huddersfield – a result which saw the Terriers ultimately relegated.

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EPL Best XI – Week 32

MilivojevicAt this late-ish stage of the season, Premier League clubs do of course start gaining games in hand over some of their rivals. At the time of writing, for example, league leaders Liverpool have played 32 games, while second-placed Man City have featured in 31 and Arsenal (in fifth) are on 30. Of course, Monday evening games play a part, but so too does the progress of different teams in different competitions. Liverpool now have a two point lead at the top of the table, though City have of course played that one game less. It is now time to look at which players performed the best for their clubs in this past weekend’s round of games, adopting a 4-4-2 formation here. For simplicity, we are calling this week 32 but that may not apply to all teams of course.

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EPL Weekend Picks – Round 6

Leroy Sane

Players from Manchester City, Wolves and Crystal Palace were among the high-scorers from Round 5, while Chelsea’s Eden Hazard topped the points chart following his hat-trick against Cardiff. Let’s take a look at some players you should consider in your EPL Fantasy team this weekend.

GK – Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester)
Admittedly, this is a risky selection. Kasper Schmeichel is on -4 points after five games and he conceded four goals last week. However, Leicester play Huddersfield – the Premier League’s lowest scorers – next before matches against Newcastle and Everton. At 7.00m, he’s worth considering.

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