Jean-Philippe Mateta bags brace as Crystal Palace beat Graham Potter’s West Ham
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Jean-Philippe Mateta scored twice to condemn West Ham boss Graham Potter to a first Premier League defeat as Crystal Palace won 2-0. The French striker made it four goals in his last three matches as Oliver Glasner’s Eagles secured back-to-back away victories.
The Hammers also had defender Konstantinos Mavropanos sent off towards the end of a miserable afternoon for Potter. England head coach Thomas Tuchel was in attendance at the London Stadium, casting his eye over Palace pair Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi, among others.
Eze was the first to create a goalscoring chance, exchanging passes with Daniel Munoz before curling over. Mateta then drew an unconvincing save from Lukasz Fabianski with a 25-yard drive before Maxence Lacroix headed an Eze free-kick over. But a disjointed first half was neatly summed up when West Ham midfielder Guido Rodriguez gave the ball away 20 yards out and Palace winger Daichi Kamada blazed his shot wildly over the crossbar.
Potter, bidding to shore up a Hammers defence which has been leaking on average two goals a game, started with a back five. He picked Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus up front together, but all the hosts had to show for their attacking endeavours before the break was a half-hearted penalty appeal from Tomas Soucek, who went down far too easily under pressure from Munoz.
