Antonio gaffe punished by lightning Palace raid
Seventeen seconds. that was the time between Michail Antonio losing the ball at one end of the pitch and Crystal Palace scoring at the other to secure their first Premier League away win since April.
In the 94th minute, Antonio had multiple West Ham team-mates waiting in the box for his cross and a chance to grab their own winning goal. Instead, the striker floated it hopelessly into the grateful arms of goalkeeper vicente Guaita. Big mistake.
Guaita did not dawdle. He threw the ball to eberechi eze, who passed to Wilfried Zaha, who fed Michael Olise. From there, Olise curled a shot into the top corner to make it 2- 1 to Palace, a deflection from Aaron Cresswell helping it on its way.
Back to front in 17 seconds. Palace’s players celebrated wildly, as did manager Patrick vieira and his staff.
Rightly so, too. they had played well here, much better than West Ham and though they left it late, deserved their win. ‘Michail
Antonio, it’s happened again,’ sang the visiting supporters.
Indeed it had. this was a copy-and-paste of October 2017 when Antonio had the ball in the dying seconds and gifted it to the goalkeeper, only for Palace to fly up the other end and score.
‘Gutting,’ was Hammers manager David Moyes’ assessment afterwards and supporters let their feelings be known at full time.
Captain Declan Rice said: ‘Fans can voice their opinions. they pay their hard-earned money. they are probably right to boo us in a way because we weren’t good enough.’
West Ham were searching for a seventh straight home win. not since 1999 had they achieved that and it looked like they were on their way when Said Benrahma opened the scoring.
A super strike it was, too, one to add to the growing collection of West Ham wonder-goals against Palace. the Dimitri Payet freekick in 2016, the Andy Carroll bicycle- kick in 2017 and Sebastien Haller’s overhead kick in 2020. this Benrahma belter will fit in fine with those great strikes.
Moyes was showing his anger in the technical area inside the opening 10 minutes. First he shook his head, then he removed his cap, then he ripped off his coat and tossed it to the ground.
It had been all Palace, but a game can change with one swing of the boot. that is what happened here when West Ham managed their first shot on target.
Zaha could not hold up the ball and after winning back possession, West Ham played it forward with Lucas Paqueta finding Benrahma. With a shimmy of the hips to lose Jordan Ayew and Cheick Doucoure, he lashed a super strike into the top-left corner from 20 yards.
Despite their slow start, West Ham led 1-0. But just when it looked like they would have a half-time lead, their defence gifted Palace a pathway back into the game.
Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski rolled the ball to Craig Dawson, who fizzed a fast pass to thilo Kehrer on the right. His first touch was poor and eze pinched possession.
He passed to Zaha, who fired beyond Fabianski. West Ham had no one to blame but themselves.
At half- time, Moyes replaced Gianluca Scamacca with Antonio. the £35million Italian has not scored in his last seven games, a drought which largely coincides with Paqueta’s absence due to a shoulder injury.
this was Paqueta’s first start since October 16. now he is back, West Ham will hope the goals follow for Scamacca. But it was over to Antonio for the rest of this afternoon.
In the 64th minute, Moyes made a double substitution which received mixed reviews. Benrahma’s removal led to boos from supporters, while tomas Soucek’s led to ironic cheers. ‘there’s a lot of experts out there, isn’t there?’ Moyes said. ‘I thought Benrahma scored a good goal. I don’t know if he had much of an impact after.’
West Ham thought they had a penalty in the 80th minute. Antonio shielded the ball from Joachim Andersen and started sprinting towards the box, nutmegging Marc Guehi and then falling over.
Referee Paul tierney pointed to the spot, believing Guehi had pulled Antonio but vAR Michael Salisbury disagreed, telling tierney to visit his
pitchside monitor to take a closer look. there, the official cancelled the spot-kick.
In stoppage time, Antonio had a chance to get the ball into the box. He failed, gifting it to the goalkeeper instead. It was an error he would regret soon enough. Palace launched a rapid counter-attack and Olise scored.
‘It’s been coming,’ vieira said of their long search for an away win.
West Ham walked off to a chorus of boos. It was a bad day at the office for Moyes’ men and one Antonio will not forget in a hurry.