Hürzeler incensed by referee as Ismaïla Sarr helps Crystal Palace beat Brighton
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If Michael Oliver isn’t on Oliver Glasner’s Christmas card list then the Crystal Palace manager may want to get one in the post before it’s too late. With the visitors struggling to get out of their half against Brighton’s onslaught, the referee was responsible for the game’s pivotal moment midway through the first half.
![[Trevoh Chalobah (centre, sitting down) scores Crystal Palace’s first goal]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/454597db046ae55b17d0b501979392926368aa16/0_186_5321_3193/master/5321.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Fabian Hürzeler was left incensed by Oliver’s decision to allow play to continue after Carlos Baleba had been impeded by the official during a Palace break, with Trevoh Chalobah compounding his misery by slamming home from the corner that eventually resulted. Yet the Brighton manager was rightly disappointed by the way his side allowed their emotions to get the better of them as Ismaïla Sarr scored twice to seal a memorable victory for Palace over their arch-enemies that ended their unbeaten record at home this season.
The only blemish for Glasner was Marc Guéhi’s late own goal that denied the otherwise outstanding Dean Henderson a deserved clean sheet and a booking for Daniel Muñoz that rules him out of Wednesday’s EFL Cup quarter-final against Arsenal, not that the jubilant away fans will particularly care after suffering the ignominy of a 4-1 defeat here in February under Roy Hodgson.
“It’s a big win because we know how important this game is for our fans,” said Glasner, whose side have moved up to 15th and have lost only once in their past nine matches in all competitions. Having started so positively, this was the latest setback for Brighton against another team from the lower half of the table that have proved to be their weakness so far this season. Hürzeler’s side have also conceded 18 times in their past nine matches but he criticised Oliver’s decision not to stop play even though regulations state officials only have to do so if the ball hits them.
