Premier League round-up: Grealish sinks Crystal Palace while Burnley and Wolves remain in trouble
It was a good day for Everton and Jack Grealish
Crystal Palace missed the chance to go second in the Premier League after seeing their long unbeaten run come to an end at Everton this afternoon.
Oliver Glasner’s side led 1-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium thanks to Daniel Munoz’s second goal of the week but they could not hang on despite bossing the game for long periods.
Tyrick Mitchell hit the woodwork and Everton defender Jake O’Brien cleared off the line from Jean-Philippe Mateta. Mateta also shot wide after Ismaila Sarr had gone round Jordan Pickford, making his 300th Premier League appearance for the Toffees.
Everton needed a spark from somewhere and it arrived with 14 minutes to go when Palace’s Maxence Lacroix brought down Tim Iroegbunam inside the box with a clumsy challenge.
Iliman Ndiaye stepped up and made no mistake from the spot, sending Dean Henderson the wrong way.
Everton completed the turnaround three minutes into injury time. Beto’s header was saved by Henderson but Munoz’s clearance cannoned into Jack Grealish and flew into the net.
It was Palace’s first defeat in 19 games in all competitions.
“It’s brilliant. It’s so nice to score here,” said Grealish after netting his first goal for Everton. “Do you know what’s mad? The last games we’ve played here we’ve been drawing and I keep saying to myself in the 85th minute, ‘Come on Jack, go and score. Imagine if you scored now’. I did it against Villa, I did it against West Ham and I didn’t score, so today I actually said the same thing again and I scored and I ran to where my mum and dad were, so it was nice. That goal goes to all the Evertonians for making me feel so welcome here.
“That’s what you want to do as a winger, I have once goal and four assists that’s what I want to do. It was difficult to do that today against such a good team. They have some unbelievable players. I think Adam Wharton today, I can see the Man of the Match award there, I think it’s coming to me but I think it should go to Adam Wharton because, in my opinion, he was the best player on the pitch today.”
Malen at the double as Aston Villa beat Burnley
Aston Villa recorded their fourth win on the bounce by seeing off Burnley 2-1 at Villa Park.
Donyell Malen, restored to the starting line-up, was the hero with a goal in each half as Unai Emery’s men backed up the Thursday night victory at Feyenoord.
Burnley pulled one back with 12 minutes to go courtesy of Lesley Ugochukwu’s header but the Clarets could not find an equaliser.
Villa move up to 13th while Burnley remain in the relegation zone.
Malen told BBC MOTD: “I think it was a good performance overall. First half we were really on it and at periods during the second half we were also good so quite pleased. You don’t want to concede because you know they are going to come back but the whole team did well to maintain the lead.”
Wolves denied at the death
Wolves’ wait for a first win goes on after Brighton snatched a late equaliser at Molineux.
The hosts took the lead two minutes after boss Vitor Pereira had been shown a red card, Marshall Munetsi’s shot coming back off the bar only to hit the back of Seagulls goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and go in.
Brighton pushed for a leveller and it came with four minutes to go as defender Jan Paul van Hecke planted a bullet header past Sam Johnstone.