Christmas is a time for giving, and it arrived 10 days early for Crystal Palace. Who would have expected their bitter rivals Brighton to be quite as generous as this?
The Eagles are now up to 15th in the table after extending their unbeaten run to five matches with a 3-1 win against their nemeses. After their poor start to the season, they have turned a corner.
Grim defending from Brighton helped Palace into a two-goal lead, and barring a freak own-goal by Marc Guehi it was fine defending by the visitors that ensured they made good on that advantage and condemned the Seagulls to a first home defeat of the season.
Lift-off for Palace came when Trevoh Chalobah converted his second goal for club with a volley into the roof of the net after 27 minutes. How Brighton allowed Will Hughes’s corner to drop, we may never know.
Further defending of a questionable order followed just six minutes later, Palace again benefitting.
Tariq Lamptey threw himself at Maxence Lacroix’s cross-field free-kick but misread the flight of the ball. Tyrick Mitchell couldn’t believe his luck, taking the ball down and hoicking a cross to the back post where Ismaila Sarr lurked to head home the second.
Not only had two of the Eagles’ summer signings scored both goals, but recruits signed since the club’s blistering end to last season played well all round. Sarr’s dribbling took some stopping — more than Brighton could muster, as it turned out — and both Chalobah and Lacroix put their foot in for crucial tackles and blocks when the hosts searched for a way back into the game.
There was one wobbly moment midway through the first half for Palace, when Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter doubled up on Marc Guehi, didn’t allow him out, and forced an error from the Palace captain which led to a chance. And then late on, with Palace having already wrapped up victory, Lacroix cleared the ball against Guehi and the ball crept over the line for an own-goal.
Julio Enciso came on at half-time and was at the heart of all things for Brighton in a second half when they saw 79 per cent of the ball and knocked constantly and loudly on the Palace door.
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But Lacroix blocked a shot on the line, and then Dean Henderson made outstanding saves from Lewis Dunk and Enciso.
And it got better when Sarr, who was again superb, outsmarted Dunk and ran threw to slide his second and Palace’s third past Bart Verbruggen.
Guehi’s bizarre own-goal was a consolation for Brighton and a mere footnote on Palace’s best result of the season to date. The same starting line-up that last weekend drew with Manchester City gave the Eagles’ 3,000 travelling fans an away day they won’t be forgetting in a hurry.