What Ayew gonna do now Eddie?

CHERRIES LACK VITALITY

ROY HODGSON wasn’t even sure he would be allowed in the stadium for Project Restart over coronavirus fears.

But nothing right now can stop the Crystal Palace boss, who turns 73 in August and wasn’t even wearing a face mask as he masterminded yet another victory.

First-half strikes from Luka Milivojevic and Jordan Ayew were enough to see off sorry Bournemouth, who missed a chance to climb out of the bottom three.

And it’s 42 points now for Palace, who climb to ninth, above Arsenal and level on points with Tottenham.

They haven’t finished higher than 10th since 1991 and, considering their injury problems and lack of spending, Hodgson deserves a medal.

As for Bournemouth, who lost Josh King to injury, things look bleak.

Eleven points from 19 games is relegation form and they showed little belief in a great escape here.

West Ham’s defeat to Wolves presented Bournemouth with a golden opportunity not just to climb out of the bottom three, but to put some daylight between them.

However, their form before the lockdown break had been awful, so Cherries boss Eddie Howe didn’t think twice about throwing forgotten man David Brooks back in.

It was the young Wales star’s first appearance since April 2019 after injury – but his early influence came at the wrong end.

Brooks hacked down Wilfried Zaha on the edge of the box and that allowed Milivojevic to whip a 25-yard free-kick over the wall and into the top corner.

Bournemouth have kept a league-low four clean sheets and again their defending let them down, with keeper Aaron Ramsdale not covering himself in glory either.

It got worse for them when Ayew, completely unmarked, struck a second inside the six-yard box after Zaha fed Patrick van Aanholt on the overlap.

It was the first time Palace had scored more than once in the first half of a league game since the final day in 2019, when they scored three… against the Cherries. But it was no