West Ham 0-2 Crystal Palace: Graham Potter challenge made clear as Eagles continue to soar | OneFootball

Jean-Philippe Mateta at the double as resurgent Palace seal first London derby away win since 2022

Graham Potter knows there can be no magic remedies to the situation at West Ham. Still, this was a sobering reminder of just how challenging he may find helping the club to turn over a new leaf. From his first three games in charge: one win and two defeats.

No such worries for Oliver Glasner and Crystal Palace. A 2-0 victory at the London Stadium marked their first derby win away from home in the capital since November 2022. Their only defeats since November 9 both came against Arsenal within the space of three days a month ago.

The Palace fans in the away end could point to their own team’s forward as an example of just what the Hammers are after right now. Jean-Philippe Mateta scored both goals and led the line adroitly.

Though West Ham slipped into gear earlier than Palace, it was the Eagles who fashioned the only meaningful chances of the first half. Mateta’s pop-shot from the right was pushed wide by Lukasz Fabianski; Will Hughes, caught in two minds, clipped a cross-shot across the goalmouth.

This lukewarm London derby didn’t even threaten to reach the simmering stage in all of the first half. For that, a quite simple explanation.

In his press conference ahead of Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Fulham, Potter distanced himself from the more unwaveringly principled managers in the Premier League by insisting he is no “fundamentalist”, instead “always adapting to players’ attributes”.

To the opposition, also. Having matched Fulham’s 4-2-3-1 setup in midweek, Potter took one look at Palace’s 2-0 win at Leicester on Wednesday and set about nullifying them too - the lesser-seen Aaron Cresswell promoted to the starting lineup and into a back three as the Hammers went for the same 3-4-2-1 formation as their visitors.

Both teams had covered space well, but then the hosts let their guard down too generously, allowing the ball to be worked up from Maxence Lacroix into midfield, and from Eberechi Eze into open turf. Max Kilman backed off and Mateta pummelled past Fabianski - the deadlock broken just three minutes into the second period.

Potter now knew a new tack was needed, and he split from his back three by making a triple substitution. Danny Ings and academy products Ollie Scarles and Lewis Orford (making his first-team debut) were thrown into the fray - a 4-2-3-1 system now entrusted with getting them back on terms.

But besides Edson Alvarez’s effort from distance, which flew wide, West Ham still created preciously little. In fact, they had no shots on target all afternoon.

As West Ham set about asserting more pressure in search of an equaliser, Palace simply let them, knowing opportunities for Mateta, Eze and substitute Eddie Nketiah to exploit space could spell trouble for the Hammers, especially after the woeful Konstantinos Mavropanos had been dismissed for two bookable offences - both fouls on Mateta - to leave the hosts a man down.

Glasner’s team nicked the ball off Kilman - who had hardly been much better than his now-dismissed centre-back partner - and Mateta worked it to Nketiah.

Fabianski lunged in, took the striker down, and Mateta duly squeezed the ball under the goalkeeper with the subsequent penalty. There will be no prizes for guessing which set of fans hung around for longer.