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HARRISON, BAMFORD ON TARGET AS LEEDS BEAT CRYSTAL PALACE 2-0

Jack Harrison and Patrick Bamford scored in either half as Leeds beat Crystal Palace 2-0 to climb into the Premier League’s top 10.

Harrison’s deflected shot gave Leeds a flying start and Bamford tucked home a rebound for his 12th league goal of the season early in the second period.

Leeds secured their 10th top-flight win of the season and gained sweet revenge for a 4-1 defeat at Selhurst Park in November.

They should have won by a bigger margin after spurning several chances, but registered a first clean sheet in seven matches this year.

Palace, who arrived in freezing West Yorkshire on the back of two straight league wins, were a clear second best for most of the match.

Eberechi Eze’s individual brilliance was too fleeting to halt a Leeds onslaught, while the Londoners lacked a cutting edge in the absence of injured top scorer Wilfried Zaha.

Leeds were quick to punish Palace for allowing them too much space on the edge of the penalty area when Harrison’s well-struck shot deflected off Gary Cahill to give the home side a third-minute lead.

Vicente Guaita was forced into a sprawling low save soon after to turn away Bamford’s excellent header from Ezgjan Alioski’s cross.

Bamford should have extended Leeds’ advantage in the 22nd minute after out-witting the Palace defence on the halfway line.

But after spinning Cahill for a free run on goal, the Leeds striker ballooned his shot tamely off target.

Palace began to pose more of a threat as the first period progressed, with Eze’s individual brilliance keeping Leeds’ rearguard on their toes.

Jordan Ayew fired the Londoners’ first shot on target low into Illan Meslier’s hands in the 36th minute.

Leeds defender Pascal Struijk headed Raphinha’s free-kick over the crossbar and somehow headed well wide from in front of goal after diving on to Kalvin Phillips’ cross.

Palace’s appeals for a penalty just before half-time when Ayling eased Ayew off Jairo Riedewald’s throughball were waved away by referee Andre Marriner.

Leeds made another fast start to the second period, extending their lead in the 52nd minute.

Raphinha’s thumping shot was well saved by Guaita and Bamford followed up to turn home the rebound from eight yards.

Eze could have hauled Palace back into it in the 67th minute but he blazed substitute Michy Batshuayi’s cutback over the crossbar.

Stuart Dallas’s fizzing low drive then forced a great save from Guaita and Harrison’s angled effort struck the crossbar as Leeds chased a third goal.

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WILFRED ZAHA ADDS TO CRYSTAL PALACE INJURY WOES

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has bemoaned the club’s injury situation ahead of Monday’s trip to Leeds with Wilfried Zaha the latest player to be sidelined.

Zaha, the club’s top goalscorer with nine Premier League goals this season, was forced off during the midweek win at Newcastle with a hamstring problem.

It will rule Zaha out of the clash with Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds and he becomes the 10th first-team player in the Eagles’ treatment room.

“We don’t know how long it’s going to keep him out but he certainly won’t be available for this game and it could even be much longer than that,” Hodgson said.

“You never know with these hamstring injuries, but Wilf is incredible in terms of recovery so I wouldn’t want to put a definite timeline on it, but it is a muscle strain and all muscle strains take time to heal.

“Our people will be doing their level best to get him back on the field as soon as possible and until then we will miss him because he is a very important figure in our attacking play.”

Palace have been without Wayne Hennessey (thigh), Nathan Ferguson (knee) and Connor Wickham (thigh) for the majority of the season, and Mamadou Sakho (thigh), James Tomkins (eye) and Jeffrey Schlupp (hamstring) recently joined them in the physio room.

Hodgson’s problems were compounded last week when James McArthur (muscle) and James McCarthy (groin) missed the clash with Newcastle.

Full-back Joel Ward also sat out the trip to St James’ Park with a knock, but he could be part of the squad on Monday.

Hodgson added: “It is a strange situation. From being in a position where he had an awful lot of players available, especially in certain positions, now we are scratching around wondering who could play and fill in for us.

“I am hoping James McArthur, who has missed the last couple of games, with a bit of luck he might be back relatively soon but this weekend might be too quick for him.

“McCarthy is another week a“Joel Ward will have a chance to be available, so that is a possible advantage for us, but we won’t know until he does a training session with the physio tomorrow and then hopefully with us on Sunday before the trip to Leeds.”
way. Tomkins and Schlupp are much further away so that is where we are.

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EZE STARS AS CRYSTAL PALACE DO A COMEBACK WIN AT NEWCASTLE.

Gary Cahill’s first Premier League goal for nearly four years earned Crystal Palace a turnaround win at Newcastle United.

The centre-half headed in Eberechi Eze’s right-wing cross to become Palace’s oldest Premier League goalscorer, aged 35 years and 45 days, and give Palace back-to-back victories for the first time since Matchweek 2.

Newcastle had made a fast start as Callum Wilson set up Jonjo Shelvey to volley the hosts ahead inside two minutes.

But Palace hit back with two goals in five minutes, with Jairo Riedewald’s shot deflecting in off Ciaran Clark before Cahill’s effort.

Ryan Fraser had a shot saved by Vicente Guaita and Miguel Almiron hit the top of the bar with a free-kick, but Newcastle could not find an equaliser.

Palace move up to 13th place on 29 points, while Newcastle drop to 16th on 22 points, eight above the relegation zone.

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STONES’ DOUBLE HELP CITY MAUL CRYSTAL PALACE AS PEP’S MEN CLIMB UP TO SECOND.

Centre-back John Stones scored his first league goals for Manchester City as his side beat Crystal Palace 4-0 to go second in the Premier League table.

City dominated the early proceedings and Stones headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s sublime outside-of-the-boot cross after 26 minutes.

Gabriel Jesus had a good chance to extend their lead shortly before half-time but his header lacked the power needed to beat Vicente Guaita.

Ilkay Gundogan’s powerful effort from 20 yards doubled City’s lead after the break before Stones reacted quickest to Guaita’s parry to score again with 22 minutes remaining.

Raheem Sterling completed the scoring with a spectacular free-kick as City recorded a fifth straight Premier League victory.

The result sees them leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Leicester City into second, two points behind leaders Manchester United with a match in hand.

Palace stay 13th with 23 points from 19 matches.

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CRYSTAL PALACE TO DEAL WITH EBERECHI EZE INTERNALLY AFTER THE NIGERIAN FLOUTS COVID-19 RULES WITH QPR VISIT.

Crystal Palace will deal with Eberechi Eze’s coronavirus “lapses” internally while QPR boss Mark Warburton has admitted his club made a mistake in allowing the winger to attend their game on Saturday.

Eze was allowed to sit in the directors’ box at Loftus Road to watch his former club face Fulham in the FA Cup despite the current ban on fans and the national lockdown.

The Football Association is understood to be looking into the incident which seems to be the latest in a string involving footballers breaching coronavirus protocols.

We know the situation that society is facing in this country, we are all very aware of it,” said Warburton at a pre-match press conference.

“QPR as a club have stringent protocols in place that we apply very strongly to every single player and staff member.

On this occasion we should have declined the request. It’s as simple as that. We made the error.

“Eberechi is an outstanding character. I can’t speak highly enough of him. He made a request, we should have said no.

“On this rare occasion we have made a mistake, it’s as plain and simple as that. It will not happen again.”

Palace said they did not know that Eze was planning to watch his old team-mates and insisted the 22-year-old, signed from Rangers in the summer, now realises he should not have attended the match.

The Eagles have confirmed they will deal internally with the incident, plus the fact he was pictured not wearing a mask.

A Palace statement read: “QPR have acknowledged they made a mistake in hosting Eberechi Eze in the directors’ box at Saturday’s FA Cup match against Fulham without our knowledge.

Whilst we recognise Eberechi’s desire to support his former team-mates, he accepts it was an error of judgement to attend the match.

“We were also concerned to see pictures of Eberechi not wearing a mask at certain moments and are speaking to him about these apparent lapses, which will be dealt with internally.”

Eze could still face the wrath of Eagles boss Roy Hodgson, who said last week that no further breaches of Government guidelines by his players will be accepted after Luka Milivojevic broke the rules on New Year’s Eve.

Palace captain Milivojevic issued an apology after his household mixed with Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic and his family.

There were further breaches of the regulations over the festive period involving Tottenham, West Ham and Manchester City players.

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I ALMOST JOINED ARSENAL – WILFRED ZAHA REVEALS.

Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha has revealed how close to came to joining Arsenal in 2019.

Zaha, an Arsenal fan, was targeted by then-Gunners manager Unai Emery 18 months ago and both clubs entered into negotiations.

Palace reportedly stood firm on their valuation prompting Arsenal to end up spending a club-record £72million on Nicolas Pepe in a deal which required little payment up front.

I had a conversation with the manager,” Zaha told Jamie Carragher’s The Greatest Game Podcast.

“[Unai] Emery was just like, ‘We don’t really need to go through much’. He said he’d seen me play, he knows I can change games at any time and stuff like that.

He was like, ‘Yeah we’d love to have you’ and I was just like, ‘Yeah I’d love to come’.

“The conversation was rather straightforward because I played against him when he was manager of Arsenal.

“He saw what I could do, saw my work-rate, and what I could add to the team.”

Pepe has underwhelmed since his big-money move from France, only showing in flashes his form from Ligue 1.

Zaha, meanwhile, is enjoying the best form of his career with eight goals in 15 games this season.

He added: “Obviously, it was up to the club who they chose. And they chose Pepe over me.”

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EBERE EZE’S SOLO GOAL ADDS AESTHETICS TO PALACE VICTORY.

Eberechi Eze struck a superb individual goal as Crystal Palace claimed a 2-0 win over Sheffield United at Selhurst Park.

Palace’s fastest Premier League goal in three years gave them a great start, Jeffrey Schlupp guiding in Christian Benteke’s pass in the fourth minute.

Eze, who had replaced the injured Schlupp, then ran from his own half and beat several opponents before curling the ball home in first-half stoppage time.

Palace also lost Benteke to a dead leg shortly into the second half and became content to soak up the Blades’ pressure.

The closest the visiting side came was when substitute Antwoine Hackford, who became their youngest PL player at 16 years and 288 days old, saw his goalbound shot cleared by Joel Ward.

Palace’s first win in six lifts them up to 14th with 22 points, while Sheff Utd are still winless at the bottom, on just two points.

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CRY 1-1 LEI: HARVEY BARNES LATE STRIKE EARNS A POINT FOR THE FOXES.

Harvey Barnes scored for the second match in a row as Leicester City grabbed another late draw against Crystal Palace to move three points behind leaders Liverpool.

Having struck an 85th-minute equaliser in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United, Leicester had a golden opportunity to take the lead at Selhurst Park.

James Tomkins brought down Luke Thomas and a 19th-minute penalty was awarded. But, with Jamie Vardy resting on the bench, Kelechi Iheanacho’s spot-kick was saved by Vicente Guaita.

Instead it was Palace who took the lead just before the hour-mark, with Wilfried Zaha leading a counter-attack and then arriving at the back post to volley in from Andros Townsend’s cross.

But Barnes levelled on 83 minutes, evading Palace’s defenders on the edge of the box and firing into the bottom-right corner.

Palace, who are without a clean sheet in 15 Premier League matches, climb to 13th place with 19 points.

Leicester move up to second above Everton, whose fixture against Manchester City this evening has been postponed.

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AVL 3-0 CRY: 10-MAN VILLA THRASH CRYSTAL PALACE TO CLIMB TO SIXTH ON THE LOG.

Anwar El Ghazi scored a stunning goal as 10-man Aston Villa earned a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace to rise to sixth.

Bertrand Traore gave Aston Villa a fifth-minute lead when he reacted quickest after Vicente Guaita had saved from Ollie Watkins.

Just before half-time, Tyrone Mings was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Wilfried Zaha.

Villa still managed to double their advantage on 66 minutes when Watkins headed against the crossbar and Kortney Hause bundled in.

Ten minutes later it was 3-0 as Watkins passed to El Ghazi who curled a first-time strike in off the post.

Watkins was then denied a deserved goal of his own when he hit the woodwork for a second time after a superb through-ball from Jack Grealish.

Villa are six points behind leaders Liverpool having played a match fewer.

Crystal Palace are without a goal and a point in two straight league matches. This defeat comes after receiving seven unreplied goals from Liverpool last weekend at Selhurst Park.

The Eagles are 13th on 18 points after back-to-back defeats.

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LIVERPOOL THRASH EAGLES AT SELHURST PARK TO CONFIRM TOP SPOT AT CHRISTMAS.

A clinical Liverpool guaranteed they will be No 1 at Christmas with a 7-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

Takumi Minamino showed good feet before finding the bottom corner after three minutes for his first Premier League goal.

Palace responded but could not get the goal they deserved and Sadio Mane’s sharp turn and finish doubled Liverpool’s advantage on 35 minutes.

The champions took full control in the 44th minute, with Roberto Firmino controlling Andy Robertson’s pass before poking the ball in.

Jordan Henderson curled in a fourth after the interval before Firmino dinked the ball over Vicente Guaita for his second.

Substitute Mohamed Salah scored a quick-fire brace, including a fantastic second, as Liverpool recorded their biggest Premier League away win.

They are six points clear of Tottenham Hotspur, who host Leicester City tomorrow.

Palace stay 12th, with 18 points.