Crystal Palace’s new manager, Roy Hodgson, had a triumphant return to the club, thanks to a last-minute goal from substitute Jean-Philippe Mateta. The Frenchman scored in the dying seconds of the match to secure a 2-1 win against Leicester City. The victory ended Palace’s run of four successive defeats and may prove pivotal in their battle against relegation. Hodgson, who is 75 years old, left his afternoons watching daytime TV at home to experience the feeling of guiding his boyhood club to victory. The decision by the Palace hierarchy to dispense with former manager Patrick Vieira during the international break was justified by the result.
There was no mention of Vieira in the programme notes from either the chairman Steve Parish or club captain Luka Milivojevic. It was almost as if Vieira’s 21-month tenure never existed, even though he guided Palace to 12th place last season and gave them a day out at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals. However, the lack of goals was the most alarming issue for Palace, and it ultimately led to Vieira’s departure. Hodgson takes a defensively-minded approach, but Palace’s back five have not been the problem.
Palace could not be blamed for sitting on the back foot in the first half, during which they had an astonishing 20 shots on goal, with five on target. Leicester had no option but to play on the counter and could have had a surprise goal on 11 minutes on a rare foray forward. Palace lost some of their dynamism in attack when Wilfried Zaha came off injured with a groin problem just before half-time. After stretching for the ball, Zaha collapsed to the floor in agony and then limped towards the dressing room. Given that he is out of contract this summer, that could have been the last time he has worn a Palace shirt following 13 seasons there as a professional.
The Foxes were a different outfit in the second half, and after James Maddison came to the party with an effort saved by the feet of Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, they took the lead. Substitute Ricardo Pereira produced a thunderbolt from Timothy Castagne’s short pass that rocketed past Guaita. But Palace levelled the score just three minutes later thanks to an Iversen own goal. A magnificent Eze free-kick from at least 25 yards smacked the top of the crossbar and then bounced off the back of the unfortunate Iversen and into the net.
Iversen did tremendously well to deny Eze on 76 minutes, but his hopes of keeping the home side at bay were utterly ruined in the closing stages. Jordan Ayew’s exceptional through-ball dissected the Leicester defence, and after Mateta left Harry Souttar for dead with a sensational turn, he planted the ball into the net. For Leicester, it was a real sickener and a goal they may well remember for the wrong reasons as it dumped them back in the bottom three with ten matches left in this craziest relegation run-in. Mateta was booked for his madcap celebration in which he jumped into the crowd, but he would not have cared one jot. Nor would have Hodgson, who was Glad All Over last night.