Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth 22/23

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well!

On Saturday 13th May 2023, Crystal Palace hosted Bournemouth in the Premier League at Selhurst Park.

Both teams came into the game guaranteed safety for next season with two games remaining of this Premier League season. Palace lost their last game 1-0 away to Tottenham but would’ve been looking today to pick up points in their penultimate home game.

Bournemouth have had a roller coaster few months beating Tottenham away 3-2 with a late goal and Liverpool 1-0 at home, but yet still remained 14th in the table below Palace.

Roy Hodgson named an unchanged line-up apart from one which saw Will Hughes come in to replace an injured Jeffery Schlupp, with Wilfried Zaha named as captain once again.

Ebere Eze’s brace earned a 2-0 win for Crystal Palace over Bournemouth in the Eagles’ penultimate home game.

In a match with the pressure of survival for both teams taken away, the two teams looked to pick up as many points as possible as the season is coming to a close. It was Crystal Palace who had the stronger start, but just lacked quality in some passes.

Will Hughes and Cheik Doucoure had a strong starts in the midfield, most of the play was in either boxes but they did well to win the ball back and set Palace on the counterattack. On one occasion Michael Olise, with the help of Wilfried Zaha, had the time and space to shoot but his shot went passed the far post.

The momentum fully swung Palace’s way, with the first real opportunity falling to Zaha at the back post. Olise whipped a wonderful ball over to the Ivorian winger but he just couldn’t direct the ball in time sending it the wrong side of the post.

Five minutes before half time Palace were rewarded with the opener – scored by none other than Ebere Eze. Some lovely link up play down the left from the Eagles consisted with a Cruyff turn from Zaha to get away from three Bournemouth men making space to pass the ball into Jordan Ayew who finally flicked it onto Eze who was waiting on the edge of the 6-yard box to finish the move with a great strike past Neto.

Bournemouth’s first attack was short lived as Joachim Andersen nicked the ball away from Dominic Solanke sending Palace on the counterattack finding Zaha on the left wing with a magnificent long ball. Zaha drove towards and into the box going for goal himself, his shot went just wide but was a good chance to double the lead.

This, along with the goal sent Hodgson and his team into the break the happier of the two sides after a dominate first half.

The second half began as the first ended. An Olise corner was flicked on at the near post by Joel Ward into the path of Hughes on the edge of the box, his first time strike was met well by the Bournemouth goalkeeper denying the ex-Watford player his first goal in red and blue.

Just six minutes into the second half Hodgson was forced into a change as captain Wilfried Zaha went down for what looked like a hamstring injury. With the wingers contract up in the summer it hangs in the balance if he will still be a Palace player come next season, he got a standing ovation and his name sung around the walls of Selhurst Park from the home fans as he left the pitch on his 457th appearance.

The change didn’t disrupt the momentum with Palace going on to get their second of the game 7 minutes later – once again coming from the man on fire! Olise spread the play over to the left wing with a breath-taking pass, meeting his number 10 teammate who bought the ball down with a great touch, Eze cut inside and drove towards the box blasting his shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Zaha’s replacement Odsonne Edouard almost got on the scoresheet himself, but the Bournemouth defence did well to trackback and prevent the scoreline being extended.

Bournemouth came to life a little as the game came to a close, with the introduction of David Brooks making an impact. The Bournemouth number 7 crossed the ball from the left wing over to fellow substitute Kieffer Moore at the far post, the cross was put out of danger and off Moore by Marc Guehi making it only a half chance.

To close the game Bournemouth were awarded a freekick, which was put way into row Z by Lewis Cook summing up Bournemouth’s day.

The game ended in a comfortable 2-0 win for the Eagles.

Another great game with Ebere Eze shining once again, with two great goals - he is absolutely unstoppable at the moment! The beginning was a bit nervy with the ball being given away to easy, Michael Olise didn’t have the best start but pulled through with the fantastic assist for Eze’s second and was whipping some lovely balls as he got into the game. Another player I was impressed by was Tyrick Mitchell who prevented balls getting wide to Dango Ouattara on numerous occasions and just looked really strong at left back (I'm putting it down to me meeting him pre-match (:). It was a real shame to see Wilfried Zaha limp off on what could’ve been his last game for Palace depending on the summer transfers.

We now have two games left where hopefully we can finish on a high and equal their highest point tally, maybe even finishing above Chelsea. Their next game is Fulham away which I am unable to attend before facing Nottingham forest at home for the final match.

My next game is Brentford B against Manchester City EDS on Friday 19th at the Gtech Stadium, so look out for that post!

Thank you for reading.

Ellie Xx