Knockaert stays in it to win it as Palace fail to impress buyer
WITH Crystal Palace said to be in the early stages of a takeover dance, this was hardly the kind of exhibit you would want to place in the shop window.
It shouldn’t matter, of course. On 33 points and with a decent goal difference, they might even be fine as they stand today. They certainly won’t need to go all the way to 40. So, with Palace likely to be staying up, you would assume the potential buyer in the US is happy.
But, in any case, it’s not a great look, with a ropey performance and a disappointing defeat against a side with only one league win in 2019. That’s just the way with Palace this season, though. They have been excellent away but at home they have one win in the past seven games in the league.
Bizarre for a team with so much talent and under Roy Hodgson’s management.
But take no credit away from Brighton, who joined Palace on 33 points with this win and celebrated it in a manner that suggests their worries are lifting. At the whistle, Lewis Dunk ran the length of the ground before chest-bumping Shane Duffy, while Chris Hughton allowed himself a clenched fist.
And well he might. His side have had a tricky old time of things in the second half of the campaign and back-to-back victories have come at precisely the right time, just as the situation was getting hairy.
It might be a push to say they deserved this win but Brighton won’t care a jot. They had some poor fortune when Florin Andone injured his quad in the warm-up and then some good when his replacement, Glenn Murray, made the most of a James Tomkins howler to score his 100th goal for Brighton.
They also had the benefit of a contentious decision less than a minute in, when Anthony Knockaert was spared a red card for a sliding challenge that almost castrated Luka Milivojevic. He escaped with a yellow and then scored a belter in the second half to win it, after Milivojevic had pulled Palace level with a penalty.
‘If you had offered me a draw at 1-1 I would have taken it as the away team,’ said Hughton. ‘Any win away is a bigger win.’
The context is that Brighton had taken only one point away from the previous six, but now they are a good bet to get a third straight season in the Premier League. On the question of whether their match-winner should have been on the pitch, Hughton was unequivocal: ‘Absolutely no to a red card.’
Hodgson said: ‘He committed a bad foul but I don’t think it was a malicious foul. We were incensed by the challenge, of course. I thought it looked like a very dangerous one. But we had 95 minutes after that to try to win the game.’
In terms of football, of moves and chances, there was zip from either side until the goal on 19 minutes, which started with a Dunk clearance that flew 70 yards. Tomkins lost the flight of the ball in the wind and fluffed his header. Murray lashed the loose ball across Vicente Guaita. Lovely stuff.
Dunk delivered two brilliant blocks to deny Wilfried Zaha and Michy Batshuayi, heightening the possibly of another England call-up this week. In between those interventions, Brighton had a reasonable shout for a penalty when Scott Dann tugged down Duffy at a set-piece. Next season, with VAR, it would probably be given.
Milivojevic levelled from the spot five minutes into the second half after Davy Propper fouled Andros Townsend — Milivojevic has scored 17 penalties since joining in February 2017 — before Knockaert won it.
The finish, squeezed into the top left corner of the net from the edge of the area, was delightful. A quality moment in a gritty match. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Guaita 6; Wan Bissaka 5.5, Tomkins 4.5, Dann 6, Van Aanholt 5.5; McArthur 6 (Benteke 77min), Milivojevic 6.5, Schlupp 6; Townsend 6.5 (Meyer 77), Batshuayi 5.5, Zaha 6. Booked: Dann. Subs (not used): Speroni, Ward, Kouyate, Ayew, Kelly. BRIGHTON (4-5-1): Ryan 6; Montoya 5.5, Duffy 6, Dunk 8, Bernardo 6; Knockaert 7.5 (March 75, 6), Bissouma 5.5, Stephens 6, Propper 5, Jahanbakhsh 5.5 (Locadia 90); Murray 7. Booked: Knockaert, Montoya, Murray, Ryan Bernardo. Subs (not used): Button, Bong, Kayal, Izquierdo, Burn. Referee: C Pawson (South Yorkshire) 7.