West Ham United 0-2 Crystal Palace
Premier League, London Stadium, Saturday 18 January 2025, 3pm GMT
Jean-Philippe Mateta downed West Ham United again as Crystal Palace scored a 2-0 Premier League win at London Stadium.
Four days after securing a morale-boosting success against Fulham, Graham Potter’s Irons were unable to complete back-to-back top-flight victories on a bitterly cold, bitterly disappointing Saturday afternoon in Stratford.
Mateta, who scored in Palace’s 5-2 win at Selhurst Park last April, hit another double as Oliver Glasner’s side collected a deserved three points to take back over the River Thames.
In between Mateta’s two second-half goals, West Ham also had Dinos Mavropanos sent-off and the Greek will now be suspended in addition to the five senior players missing through a variety of injuries.
With opposite number Oliver Glasner fielding his team in a 5-2-2-1 formation, Potter switched to a flexible 5-1-3-1 shape, with Mohammed Kudus playing as the centre-forward, supported by a narrow trio of Lucas Paquetá, Edson Álvarez and captain Tomáš Souček.
With so many players in the central third of the pitch, space was at a premium, as were goalscoring chances in the opening half-hour.
If anyone was going to create something for West Ham it was Kudus, who ran the channels, held the ball up and repeatedly used his strength and low centre of gravity to spin away from defenders.
From two such passages of play, Aaron Wan-Bissaka volleyed across the face of goal, Edson Álvarez had a shot blocked and Paquetá prodded wide for West Ham.
Eberechi Eze curled over, Mateta forced Łukasz Fabiański into a diving parry, Chris Richards glanced a header into the goalkeeper’s gloves and Daichi Kamada twice fired very high and well wide for Palace.
And that was about it.
Within three minutes of the restart, the Eagles scored. Eze released Mateta, Maximilian Kilman backed off and the French striker slammed a low right-foot shot into Fabiański’s bottom left-hand corner.
Eze then fired over and Potter, who has replaced Guido Rodríguez with Carlos Soler at the interval, responded by making a triple substitution. Danny Ings and Academy of Football prospects Ollie Scarles and Lewis Orford were the men sent on.
For midfielder Orford, it was a first-team debut as the 18-year-old became West Ham’s 1,007th senior player in the Club’s 130-year history. For the first time since the home win over Luton Town last May, the Irons had two homegrown players on the pitch at the same time in Premier League match.
The changes did lead to opportunities, as Ings had a shot blocked and Álvarez fired the loose ball wide, but Palace were largely comfortable otherwise.
Indeed, the visitors could have extended their lead had Fabiański not made a fine save to smother substitute, Eddie Nketiah’s first touch, then hold a low drive from fellow replacement Jason Devenny.
With ten minutes to play, the hosts’ task was made even more difficult when Dinos Mavropanos, who had been booked just after half-time, was shown a second yellow card for a foul on goalscorer Mateta.
And Palace made the game safe a minute from time when Fabiański tripped Nketiah and Mateta converted the resulting penalty kick.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Cresswell (Scarles 56), Emerson (Orford 56), Rodríguez (Soler HT), Álvarez (Luis Guilherme 83), Souček ©, Kudus, Paquetá (Ings 56)
Subs not used: Areola (GK), Coufal, Casey, Irving
Booked: Álvarez, Mavropanos
Sent-off: Mavropanos
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Muñoz, Lacroix, Guéhi ©, Richards, Mitchell, Hughes (Clyne 90), Sarr (Devenny 68), Kamada, Eze (Nketiah 78), Mateta (Schlupp 90)
Subs not used: Turner (GK), Riad, Kporha, Doucouré, Rodney
Goals: Mateta 48, 89 (pen)
Referee: Thomas Bramall
Attendance: TBC
