West Ham is perfect no more thanks to a pair of Conor Gallagher equalizers in Crystal Palace’s 2-2 draw at London’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday.
Michail Antonio set up a Pablo Fornals goal and later scored one himself, but Chelsea loanee Gallagher was tidy with a pair of quality in-tight finishers.
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Palace gets its second point of the year, while West Ham United has two wins and a draw through three matches.
West Ham goes to Southampton on Sept. 11 after the international break. Palace will host Tottenham earlier that day.
West Ham vs Crystal Palace score, stats, results
West Ham 2, Crystal Palace 2
Goals scored: Pablo Fornals (39′), Conor Gallagher (58′, 70′), Michail Antonio (68′)
Shots: West Ham 14, Crystal Palace 9
Shots on target: West Ham 4, Crystal Palace 2
Possession: Crystal Palace 54%
Three things we learned from West Ham vs Crystal Palace
1. Antonio is a force: Make it 50 Premier League goals from the 31-year-old Jamaican, whose story feels like it deserves more love considering what we’ve heaped on Jamie Vardy over the years. It wasn’t as a wild a multi-club non-division ride for Antonio, who started with Tooting and Mitcham United, but he still had a circuitous route to the big stage. Antonio showed familiarity and technical ability in setting up Fornals goal before delivering a goal of his own.
2. It’s about who they have played: Last season, West Ham impressed so many when they surged into the top four discussion. The final result wasn’t there, but that was more about some disappointments against lower-tier competition. That includes dropping six-of-six points to Newcastle and drawing at home to Crystal Palace.
The Irons doubled-up Newcastle away on Opening Day and further impressed by putting up another four goals on Leicester City, but Saturday delivered a slight warning sign to David Moyes’ men even if they were dominant for an hour. Sometimes it’s not about chances finding the back of the net if you can’t keep them out of your own. No wonder Kurt Zouma is set to arrive in a new part of London.
3. Several signs from Palace and few > none: Look, there’s no doubt that Crystal Palace changed managers and had to work a long time to fill up their roster for this season. Patrick Vieira and several new players (surely with more to come) are still finding their feet in South London. Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher maneuevered well in a 18-yard-box melee to slot home after several redirections of a Wilfried Zaha cross from the left.
Jairo Riedewald on the bench doesn’t make a ton of sense and Eberechi Eze is a huge miss, but you like to see signs of something and this performance qualifies as that. Vieira will have wanted three points after winning the possession battle away from home.
Man of the Match: Conor Gallagher
Sure this could’ve easily been Antonio, but let’s give some love to the Chelsea loanee for two very, very good-looking goals.
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