Eze, Ayew get a little above average rating as palace falls
Eberechi Eze and his Ghanian counterpart Ayew got a little above average rating Saturday as Crystal Palace got what looked like a baptism of fire no thanks to Burnley.
Early goals in both halves helped Burnley to an impressive 3-0 away win at Crystal Palace, almost doubling their away goals tally for the season in one afternoon.
It was a speedy start as Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Jay Rodriguez fired Burnley into a quick two-goal lead, with Sean Dyche’s side scoring in the opening half of a Premier League game for the first time in 2021.
Matt Lowton then sent home a wonderful half volley just after the break. The only blemish on Burnley’s afternoon was an injury for captain Ben Mee, who was stretchered off late on after taking an inadvertent shoulder to the head from Jordan Ayew.
Burnley later tweeted that Mee was up and about after his injury scare and Dyche confirmed to Sky Sports that he had not made a concussion substitution, saying: “It wasn’t another change situation, we just didn’t think he was concussed and therefore, we were just trying to do it right. If he’s not concussed, he’s not concussed so we just did a normal sub.”
Burnley scored as many goals at Selhurst Park on Saturday as they had in their previous 10 away league games combined, taking their tally for away Premier League goals this season from five to eight.
It was an ultimately disappointing Palace performance to mark Roy Hodgson’s 350th Premier League game as a manager, mustering just three shots on target. They stay in 13th while Burnley go above Brighton and Newcastle into 15th, now 11 points clear of the bottom three.
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Burnley took the lead inside five minutes at Selhurst Park after some terrible defending from Crystal Palace. Erik Pieters fired an inviting cross in from the left, with Scott Dann and Patrick van Aanholt unable to sort themselves out to clear. Gudmundsson then picked up the ball, ran to the space behind before firing a low shot past Vicente Guaita.