Crystal Palace clobbered a West Ham United side that looked like it was still down from its Europa League exit, as the rampant Eagles treated Selhurst Park to a 5-2 win on Sunday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta scored twice and both Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise registered a goal and an assist as the Eagles built a 4-0 lead en route to essentially securing their Pre
Palace move onto 36 points, nine clear of 18th-place Luton Town. The Eagles have five games left while Luton have four.
West Ham United’s European hopes rest solely on their table finish, and David Moyes and Co. fought well versus Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday in the Europa League quarterfinals but could not overcome a first-leg deficit.
This result will not help Moyes’ hopes of returning to Europe, and it may well sting his overall job status. Michail Antonio scored in the first half and a Dean Henderson howler handed them an own goal late on, as the Irons 48 points are good for eighth place. Ninth-place Chelsea are a point back with three matches-in-hand, while 10th-place Brighton are four points back with two matches-in-hand.
Say what you will about West Ham’s poor performance, but Palace didn’t waste their chance to take advantage of it.
Selhurst Park is finally seeing the vision of attack Palace’s admin envisioned before the season, as healthy Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise create so much room for their teammates.
It had paid off for Odsonne Edouard before and today it was Jean-Philippe Mateta. The 26-year-old now has nine Premier League goals this season.
There are just so many more chance when players like Eze and Olise are buzzing around the pitch, and the Eagles’ attack looks deep now that Jordan Ayew and Edouard can come off the bench rather than be expected to star on a weekly basis.