Match Review: Palace out wait West Ham as the points are shared

It was a game of two halves for West Ham as a strong and fast first half was followed up by a slow and lazy second half. Zaha would score late to draw Crystal Palace even with the Hammers and the points were shared.

It’s not often when a match between West Ham and Crystal Palace is as much as an entertainment packed nailbiter as this one was, but the 1-1 draw saw end-to-end action for a full 90 minutes.

West Ham certainly won the first half with Mark Noble capitalizing and finishing a penalty won by Michail Antonio. After a scuffed ball into the box from a free kick found its way to Declan Rice he flicked it over the wall of players and Antonio beat the Palace keeper to the ball before he was punched down to win the penalty.

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Marko Arnautovic, who notably didn’t start, was probably kicking himself on the bench as it was appointed the role of penalty kick taker this season. Regardless, Mr. West Ham and Mr. Reliable, Mark Noble stepped up and scored to take the lead.

The Crystal Palace goal was one they certainly earned. Palace started the second half on the front foot and were able to hold up possession in the Hammers end with relative ease. The substitution of Christian Benteke for Michy Batshuayi changed the game for the Eagles, as the target man couldn’t offer the hold-up playmaking that their new striker could.

Eventually breaking down the left wing, Wilfred Zaha took advantage of the yards of space Ryan Fredericks gave him and eventually found his way into the box for a shot. The ball looked to be going wide, across the face of the goal, however, in an attempt to block the shot Issa Diop deflected it over Fabianski.

Ryan Fredericks started this match after performing very well at home against Liverpool the week prior, however, he was the weak link Palace relentlessly tried to expose for the entire match. To Fredericks credit, he repelled the assault for much of the match and worked well with Noble to force turnovers and move the ball up the wing as much as possible. The substitution of Zabaleta in the 84th minute was 8 minutes too late, as the veteran defender shut down Zaha for the remainder of the match.

The battle of Wan-Bissaka, the best tackling player in the Premier League, vs. Felipe Anderson, the best dribbling player in the Premier League was incredibly entertaining all match long. With neither player making an impact on the score sheet there can be no advantage given in the battle, but boy was it fun to watch.

Lastly, West Ham’s man of the match was Lukasz Fabianski. The Polish keeper ended the game with four saves, and all of them were 5-star. Fabianski stopped both Benteke and MacArthur who were in close and unmarked on attempted offside traps. One save for each hand on those chances kept the game in West Ham’s favor.