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The birthday boy Ismaïla Sarr ended Crystal Palace’s wait for a home victory as Adam Wharton starred on his return from injury to deal a major blow to Aston Villa’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League again.
It was a night when everything seemed to go Oliver Glasner’s way as Unai Emery saw his side succumb to a seventh defeat in their last nine away matches in the Premier League. Having found a way back into the game at the start of the second half thanks to an equaliser from Morgan Rogers after he had seen another goal disallowed for the narrowest of offsides, Villa were blown away as Jean‑Philippe Mateta and Sarr’s second on the Senegal forward’s 27th birthday sealed only a third league win of the campaign at Selhurst Park for Palace.
Substitute Eddie Nketiah added a fourth in stoppage time to register his first Premier League goal for Palace since joining from Arsenal in the summer. But it was the imperious Wharton, who had surgery on a groin injury in October having been called up for England’s Euro 2024 squad, that stole the show in front of Gareth Southgate’s successor Thomas Tuchel on his first start for nearly four months.
“He was a little bit rusty in the beginning but then you could see his quality as he adjusted so quickly to the pace of the Premier League again,” said Glasner. “He played excellent and we’re so pleased to have him back.”
A measure of his respect for Palace was that Emery opted to switch to a back three for their trip to south London. But having come off the bench to inspire their victory against Chelsea at the weekend, there was nothing Marcus Rashford and Marcos Asensio could do this time after being introduced late on.
“We have not been consistent enough,” admitted Emery, whose side have only kept three clean sheets all season. “Now we have to manage the frustration that we have today and move on.”
The last time Wharton started a Premier League game, at the end of October, Palace had yet to register a victory in eight attempts. In his absence, Glasner has overseen a steady climb up the table thanks to their impressive away form that has yielded four straight victories thanks to their ability to hit teams on the break.
Watching both managers prowling the touchline in their black puffer jackets was almost more entertaining than events on the pitch in the opening half hour as Emery reacted to every misplaced pass. He had his head in his hands when Youri Tielemans glanced a cross from Andrés García wide of the far post before Jacob Ramsey saw a goal disallowed for offside.
The breakthrough came at the other end on the half-hour mark when Villa failed to clear a corner and Sarr almost got on the end of a cross from Eberechi Eze. The ball came out to Wharton and he picked out the unmarked Chris Richards, whose header was parried straight into the path of the gleeful Sarr.
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The goal seemed to lift a collective weight from the Palace players’ shoulders, with Ezri Konsa having to throw himself in front of a goal-bound Eze shot before Emi Martínez parried Sarr’s brilliant volley from another Eze cross. Rogers thought he had equalised on the stroke of half-time but, to Emery’s clear disgust, Watkins’ knee was adjudged to have been offside when he was played through in the buildup.
There were boos for Robin Olsen when he replaced the injured Martinez after the Villa goalkeeper forced a half-time penalty shootout featuring the mascots to take place at the other end when he refused to budge from the goalmouth as he completed his warm-up. Olsen had an almost immediate impact when Chris Richards failed to deal with his long punt forward and Rogers made no mistake after latching on to a flick-on from Watkins.
Their joy was short-lived, however, as Wharton combined brilliantly with Eze on the edge of the Villa area to set up Mateta, who hammered his shot past Olsen for his 12th Premier League goal of the season. It could have been even worse for the visitors had Eze controlled another sumptuous through ball from Wharton. That prompted Emery to turn to Rashford and Asensio, even if it was a surprise to see Watkins make way.
But it was Palace who underlined their dominance when Sarr rounded off his birthday celebrations by volleying home Daniel Muñoz’s cross to the delight of the home supporters before Nketiah finally broke his duck in injury time by tapping in Tyrick Mitchell’s cross.
