Three and easy for West Ham but Palace edge towards drop zone
Not since 1982 had West Ham beaten three sides in a row while scoring three goals in each game. Manuel Pellegrini’s class of 2018 added Crystal Palace to Newcastle and Cardiff on their list of victims after the visitors had taken an early lead through James McArthur.
A trio of second-half replies from Robert Snodgrass, Javier Hernandez and Felipe Anderson were enough to take the points and leave Palace, beaten by 10-man Brighton in midweek, worrying about relegation.
West Ham are 10th and Pellegrini is keen to look upwards. “We are now five points from sixth,” he said. “I always look up. I always talk with the players they must have a winning mentality. They must decide to be a big team.”
Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey made a smart save to deny Hernandez just seconds before McArthur struck at the other end in the sixth minute. West Ham switched off from a free-kick and the Scot was left free to poke past Lukasz Fabianski.
The first half ended with the Hammers grateful that Luka Milivojevic’s free-kick crashed back off the crossbar with Fabianski beaten. In response, Andy Carroll replaced the ineffective Lucas Perez at half-time and the change was immediate. Within four minutes the Hammers were level through Snodgrass, who launched a curling left-footer inside Hennessey’s near post. The Wales goalkeeper did well to palm away a free-kick, won by Carroll and fired over the wall by Anderson, but Hernandez lashed in the rebound in the 62nd minute. Anderson made it 3-1 three minutes later. The Brazilian took a touch on the edge of the box before curling across Hennessey, who had no chance. Jeffrey Schlupp, on for Patrick van Aanholt, headed home with 14 minutes remaining to give Palace hope of an equaliser that never came. Wilfried Zaha was booked for standing on Pablo Zabaleta’s foot and James Tomkins for arguing over the free-kick for Hernandez’s goal. Both will now miss the home game with Leicester next week.