Eagles have only scored nine home goals this season – but Jordan Ayew’s sublime winner signs off last SE25 fixture in 2019 on a winning note

CRYSTAL PALACE 2
Kouyate 68 Ayew 90
WEST HAM UNITED 1
Snodgrass 57

BY SAM SMITH AT SELHURST PARK

Supporters at Selhurst Park do not witness many goals. In fact, Crystal Palace have only scored nine at home all season.

But most Eagles fans will have left their side’s 2-1 victory against West Ham United with a sense of forgiveness for that lack of ruthlessness in the final third after watching Jordan Ayew slalom around the Hammers team before chipping in the winner.

For outstanding technical ability, agility and sheer audacity, it was perhaps one of the greatest goals ever scored in SE25.

The irony is that this performance by Roy Hodgson’s side lacked all that confidence for most of the game. This was another fixture in which Palace struggled to break down inferior opposition and Hodgson once again echoed the need for striking reinforcements in the January transfer window.

West Ham provided the poorest performance produced by an opposition side at Selhurst Park this season. Hodgson’s critics will see this as Palace scraping past a bad team with Ayew’s goal papering over glaring cracks.

No opposition side has given Wilfried Zaha so much space to dribble in recent memory as the Hammers did. It meant the Ivorian was able to have his best game of the season and the 27-year-old seemed most likely to create opportunities.

Ayew should have been in position to tap in Zaha’s inviting cross midway through the first half before the 28-year-old somehow only steered Max Meyer’s ball wide. Further opportunities for both Ayew and Luka Milivojevic would follow as the crowd grew frustrated at what was the theme for most of 2019.

Robert Snodgrass swept West Ham into the lead after taking advantage of space departed by Patrick van Aanholt, who became the latest casualty late in the second half. Palace now have no fit recognised full-backs for their trip to Southampton.

Cheikhou Kouyate had deputised well at centre-back against Newcastle United before Christmas and his first Palace goal 11 minutes after Snodgrass had scored was deserved for the Senegal international’s versatility and hard work. He latched on to Ayew’s knock down to side foot past his former side.

The absence of conviction in front of goal was epitomised when Connor Wickham raced through on goal but poked straight at Roberto Jimenez under very little pressure. Jairo Riedewald then made a goal-saving block to deny Snodgrass.

Those supporters most critical of Hodgson’s tenure are quick to point out the rigidity and lack of flair, so it was fitting that the most magical moment was left until the final minute of football played in SE25 this year.

Little seemed on when Ayew received the ball on the right wing. West Ham were in an organised shape, deep on the edge of their own box. The Ghanaian initially did well to hold on to the ball under pressure before pirouetting around Declan Rice. Two quick, instinctive touches saw him around Angelo Ogbonna and Fabian Balbuena.

In on goal and with the form of Palace’s strikers of recent times, the odds were in favour of Ayew smacking the ball over the crossbar. But the most sumptuous dink over Roberto culminated the most wonderful of solo efforts.

Palace’s home faithful are unfamiliar with these moments. Only two of the club’s Goal of the Season awards since promotion in 2013 have been scored at Selhurst. The last was Jason Puncheon’s strike against Norwich City which was better revered for being the goal that clinched Premier League survival than being a genuinely great goal.

But the fact that Ayew’s goal will most likely halt that run is symbolic of how Hodgson has improved his side’s home form. In 2018, Palace recorded 22 points from 18 games in South London. This year, they managed 26 from 19.

Further improvement will only come if Palace strengthen. That they find themselves ninth at this stage of the season having been unable to fill the usual 25-man squad submitted by all Premier league clubs and having suffered so many injuries is almost a miracle.

Hodgson, so key to that success, deserves help from those above him. It is not every game that a moment of individual brilliance will bail out a Palace side stripped to its bare bones.

Crystal Palace (4-1-2-3): Guaita 6, Kelly 5, Tomkins 5, Sakho 5, Van Aanholt 5 (Riedewald 65 5), Milivojevic 4, McArthur 6, Kouyate 6 (McCarthy 88), Meyer 6 (Wickham 75), Ayew 9, Zaha 8. Not used: Hennessey, Woods, Camarasa, Pierrick.