Crystal Palace 1 - West Ham 3: Carroll unstoppable as Hammers beat ten-man Pardew side

Andy Carroll was the spearhead of a potent West Ham attack

ALAN PARDEW can’t claim that he didn’t see it coming…

 

He warned his Crystal Palace side that Andy Carroll can be unplayable if he is in the mood.

And it was big Andy who dumped Pardew and Palace out of the top four even though he wasn’t on the scoresheet.

He didn’t even have to jump to get to Mauro Zarate’s scooped cross but headed back across goal for Manuel Lanzini to clinch a fourth away win of the season for Slaven Bilic’s rampant side.

They’d already won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City – and might have expected to stroll it against a Palace side reduced to ten men just before half-time.

Manager Alan Pardew had talked about Carroll before the game, but his side couldn't deal with him

It was a cruel way for Pardew’s men to go down after they’d come back from one down – and then coped superbly despite being down to ten men.

And it was even more heartbreaking when Dimnitri Payet added a stoppage time third. 

Hammers’ defender Jenkinson was mobbed by his teammates after his second goal in successive matches.

For a full-back who has never made a habit of scoring – only one goal in five year up until the start of the season – it must have been another joyous moment.

 

Dwight Gayle's red card made a difficult task almost impossible for Palace

But the celebrations didn’t last very long – no more than 75 seconds!

The Arsenal loanee had hardly recovered from putting West Ham a goal in front with a cool head to finish off a Payet-Victor Moses move.

Maybe he let his second goal in two games go to his head and he certainly wasn’t concentratingh when he slid in on Dwight Gayle, bringing him down in the box when he was going nowhere. 

Yohan Cabaye still needed nerves of steel. His first attempt rocketed past Adrian – but ref Mark Clattenburg ordered it to be re-taken as Gayle was practically level with the taker when he struck the ball.

Cabaye wasn’t flustered and buried his second effort into the roof of the net for his fourth goal since Alan Pardew brought him back to the Premier League after an unhappy spell at Paris St. Germain.

It was also his third in as many games as Palace went in search of the win to cement their unlikely place in the top four.

Everyone should have left Selhurst Park talking about the twin assault on the Champions League by London neighbours Palace and West Ham.

Instead it was Clattenburg who took centre stage by sending off striker Gayle on the stroke of half-time.

Gayle, 25 this coming Tuesday, was booked for a crunching midfield clash with Dimitri Payet in the 32nd minute and, 11 minutes later, caught Cheikou Kouyate with a slightly mistimed attempt to get the ball.

He knew instantly what the outcome would be before trudging off, his shirt pulled high over his face in despair. 

Star Man: Cheikou Kouyate – the driving midfield force who kept the Hammers pushing on even when they didn’t look like breaching Palace’s backline.

C. Palace: Hennessey 6; Kelly 6, Dann 7, Hangeland 7, Square 6; Zaha 7 (Sako (46th) 6), Cabaye 6 (Ledley (76th)), McArthur 6 (Jedinak (63rd) 6), Puncheon 5, Bolasie 5; Gayle 5.

West Ham: Adrian 6; Jenkinson 6, Tomkins 6, Collins 6, Cresswell 6; Moses 7 (Zarate (73rd) 6), Noble 6 (Carroll (62nd) 6), Kouyate 8, Lanzini 6, Payet 6; Sakho 6 (Jelavic (85th)).

Ref: M.Clattenburg.

Att: 24,812.