Rondon is on the money for Albion
WELL, at least Alan Pardew knows what’s top of his to-do list this week. Crystal Palace need a striker and, on this evidence, there is no time to waste.
They drew a worrying blank here on what was a disappointing start to their Premier League season. It wasn’t necessarily that West Brom had the greater cutting edge going forward but they had just enough to prevail.
Both of these sides struggled desperately for goals last season — indeed, only bottom club Aston Villa scored fewer — and Palace face a season of struggle if they don’t get a couple of deals sewn up this week.
West Brom’s winner exposed fragility at the back, too, as Salomon Rondon was allowed to dart in between Scott Dann and Damien Delaney to soar and score with a flicked header past Wayne Hennessey.
Coming just 16 minutes from time, it was a hammer-blow for Palace, who didn’t have the ability to break down a resolute Albion defence. Pardew threw Yannick Bolasie and then Yohan Cabaye but to no avail.
The situation will only get worse if, as expected, Bolasie completes his £25m switch to Everton next week. The Selhurst Park faithful tried to show their love by singing his name but the Congolese has evidently had his head turned.
Pardew said: ‘As much as I love him and the fans love him, if his heart and his soul isn’t with us then we have to exchange goodbyes and look to get better.
‘Even with Yala in the side, our goals record was not great in the second half of last season and we have to address that.
‘That was evident again today and it is the cutting edge that gets us a goal. If we had scored first today, we would have won.’
Instead, Pardew was left to rue the second-half moment when Wilfried Zaha was set free by Chung-yong Lee and outpaced the pedestrian Albion defence to break clear.
However, Ben Foster was alert to the threat and raced from his goal to smother Zaha’s shot before the defenders regrouped to snuff out Connor Wickham. ‘He should have scored that in my opinion,’ said Pardew.
But that was as good as it got for Palace, who never looked like outsmarting Tony Pulis’s players and when it mattered Rondon was right on the money. Palace, for their part, better go out and spend some.
Crystal PalaCe (4-2-3-1): Hennessey 6.5; Ward 6.5, Dann 6, Delaney 6, Souare 5.5 (Kelly 90); Jedinak 6.5, Puncheon 6.5 (Cabaye 77, 6); Townsend 6.5, Lee 6 (Bolasie 65, 6), Zaha 7; Wickham 6. subs (not used): Speroni; Ledley, Ladapo, Anderson. Booked: Zaha, Bolasie.
West Brom (4-4-2): Foster 6; Dawson 6.5, McAuley 6.5, Olsson 6.5, Evans 6.5; Gardner 6.5 (McClean 70, 6.5), Fletche 6, Yacob 6, Phillips 5; Rondon 7, Berahino 5 (Morrison 85). subs (not used): Myhill; Lambert, Leko, Field, Wilson. Booked: Dawson, Evans.
referee: C Pawson (South Yorkshire) 6.