Crystal Palace 5 Aston Villa 0
Oliver Glasner’s side had hit a real purple patch towards the end of the season. It was no coincidence that having both Olise and Eze fully fit had seen their fortunes change. Added to that, Mateta was really showing his worth playing in this talented front three.
Aston Villa were the visitors to Selhurst Park, having already had their end of season party in midweek. It was on the same night Man City beat Tottenham to guarantee Unai Emery’s side that they would be playing Champions League football next season.
The Eagles started on the front foot as Wharton and Olise combined to put Mateta through on goal. He slotted the ball past Olsen to open the scoring after only nine minutes. The hosts looked a completely different side to the one that was almost dragged into the relegation reckoning this season.
Douglas Luiz then played a sublime pass into the path of Diaby. He only had Henderson to beat but the Palace keeper made a fantastic save in the bottom corner of the goal to deny him. From the resulting corner the former Man Utd stopper was called into action again, denying the same player.
Credit: @premierleague
The visitors started to put pressure on as Watkins headed down into the ground towards goal but Guehi cleared from under his own crossbar. There was no denying that Villa looked dangerous in attack but Crystal Palace had seemingly weathered the storm.
Just before the interval, Munoz crossed from out wide and Mateta was there to slot home and double the hosts’ lead. Selhurst Park erupted as their in-form striker punished Emery’s side for not being clinical in front of goal themselves.
Early in the second half, Aston Villa continued to defend like they had come straight to the game from Wetherspoons. Eze capitalised and drilled a shot into the bottom corner of the goal from the edge of the box. This was turning into some end of season party for the hosts.
As an Aston Villa move broke down, Henderson immediately got the ball downfield. Eze spotted the run of Mateta and he became only the second Palace player to score a hat trick for the club in the Premier League. Unai Emery must have wished he was on a beach somewhere by now.
Things went from bad to worse for the visitors as Eze added a fifth moments later, playing a neat one-two with Mateta before slotting it past Olsen. Palace’s fans could have not hoped for a better performance to sign off their Premier League campaign.
Eze almost added a sixth but Olsen made a great one-handed stop to deny him. If Crystal Palace can keep their two wingers at the club, and keep them fit, the sky is the limit for this team. Oliver Glasner may need to take the phone off the hook until the start of next season to do so now.
Credit: @CPFC
The Eagles took all three points, which took them to tenth in the table. It was their highest finish in the Premier League era and a fantastic finish to Oliver Glasner’s first season in charge, despite only replacing Hodgson halfway through the campaign.
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