Crystal Palace 5-2 West Ham United
Premier League, Selhurst Park, Sunday 21 April 2024, 3pm BST
West Ham United fell to a heavy Premier League defeat by Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze struck in quick succession, before an Emerson own-goal saw a Palace third arrive with just 20 minutes played.
Jean Philippe-Mateta then struck a fourth for Palace in a dismal first half, although Michail Antonio netted a West Ham consolation before the break.
Hopes of an unlikely comeback were over, though, when Mateta completed his brace on the hour, and despite a late Dean Henderson own goal, West Ham’s dreams of European football in 2024/25 took a huge blow in south London.
Just under 12 months since the 4-3 defeat to Crystal Palace in April 2023, West Ham’s trip to Selhurst Park once again brought four goals for the hosts. This time, it took just 30 minutes.
Olise beat Łukasz Fabiański to bravely head home the opener with seven minutes played, Eze volleyed home a rebound, and Will Hughes' cross hit Emerson and rolled into the net for a Palace third.
Chances continued to arrive for the soaring Eagles as a shell-shocked West Ham struggled to find their feet, perhaps exhausted from their European efforts in midweek.
Mitchell tricked his way past Vladimír Coufal, and Eze struck wide. A fourth arrived soon after, when Mateta was left to finish from six yards on 31 minutes.
Again, Olise played his part, with a delicious cross. West Ham’s defence was absent once more.
Having sent the first chance of his 250th Premier League appearance for the Club over the bar from six yards out, Antonio breathed some life into the fixture with a much-needed West Ham response on 41 minutes.
Coufal's cross was headed on by Tomáš Souček to allow West Ham’s all-time Premier League top-scorer to strike his fourth goal in his last four starts against Palace.
His sixth goal of the season gave his side a small chance of making a comeback in the second half, and also saw West Ham score for the 20th consecutive game against the Eagles.
Any belief of West Ham becoming just the second side in the Premier League era to overturn a four-goal deficit and secure a point was over by 64 minutes, however.
Palace had already come closest to adding the game’s sixth goal in the second half, when Fabiański kept out a well-struck effort from Eze, although Palace’s chief creative was not done just yet.
Eze found Mateta, who with all the time in the world tucked his second - and Palace’s fifth - into the bottom corner from inside the area. His goal confirmed a victory that was arguably secure after just half-an-hour.
A Palace fifth meant that when West Ham’s second arrived, after Henderson bizarrely misjudged Mitchell’s pass in the last minute of the 90, the points were always staying in south London.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Richards, Andersen ©, Mitchell, Muñoz, Wharton (Ahamada 61), Hughes (Riedewald 81), Olise (Ayew 68), Eze (Schlupp 81), Mateta (Édouard 68)
Subs not used: Matthews (GK), Ward, Holding, Tomkins
Goals: Olise 7, Eze 15, Emerson og 20, Mateta 31, 64
Booked: Hughes, Mitchell, Ahamada
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal, Zouma ©, Ogbonna (Johnson 46), Emerson, Ward-Prowse, Álvarez (Phillips 74), Souček (Creswell 46), Kudus (Cornet 85), Paquetá, Antonio (Ings 74)
Subs not used: Areola (GK), Casey, Mubama, Orford
Goals: Antonio 41, Henderson og 89
Booked: Antonio, Souček
Referee: Graham Scott
Attendance: 25,145
