Crystal Palace vs West Ham match report: Late goals sink Eagles and maintain Hammers superb away record

Manuel Lanzini is mobbed after putting his side ahead (Getty Images)

Dwight Gayle pulled his shirt up over his face as he made his embarrassed exit with the first half still in full swing. It was an appropriate enough gesture. He looked like a headless chicken in a blue and red t-shirt, and he’d played like one.

Perhaps that’s harsh. It was he who had won Palace’s penalty after all, crumbling in the box as if tasered by a brush with Carl Jenkinson. That he did his best to sabotage it by running six yards in to the box before Yohan Cabaye had despatched the ball in to the net, forcing a retake, will not be long remembered.

The contributions of Palace’s most anonymous player decided a game that didn’t come close to living up to expectations. London’s two most positive and exciting teams failed to add up to the sum of their parts.

Carl Jenkinson celebrates opening the scoring (Getty Images)

Jenkinson opened the scoring with barely 20 minutes gone, rising for a header in the six-yard box to score his second in two games. Palace equalised within a minute, but from there it was downhill, and fast.

Gayle’s first yellow was for an aggressive and poorly timed challenge through the back of Dimitri Payet. The second was debatable, but when you’re already on one, why do it?

“The first challenge was a bad challenge and was a yellow card, “ said Alan Pardew, the Palace manager. “The second one, he missed the ball by a centimetre. Did it really warrant that? If he [Mark Clattenburg] had paused, he might have given him a final warning. And the game deserved that.”

Yohan Cabaye converts a penalty to equalise (Getty Images)

After the sending off, Palace were deliberately slow, deliberately obdurate. They don’t like playing this way, and it didn’t last. An ugly goal, slapped in by Manuel Lanzini from three yards out gave West Ham the win with three minutes to go.

Dimitri Payet walks off the field triumphant after his late goal

Dimitri Payet put it beyond doubt in stoppage time, collecting a pass on the edge of the box and dinking it over Wayne Hennessey’s head for a goal that yet further confirms his status as the most exciting West Ham player since Carlos Tevez.