West Ham United vs Crystal Palace. Premier League.
London StadiumAttendance56,995.
Report and highlights from 5.15pm as Felipe Anderson also scores stunner
Saturday 8 December 2018 20:41, UK
Robert Snodgrass' first goal for West Ham in the Premier League sparked a second-half comeback which saw them beat Crystal Palace 3-2 at the London Stadium.
Palace held a half-time lead thanks to James McArthur's six-yard finish after West Ham's defence switched off from a sixth-minute free-kick.
But three minutes after half-time, Snodgrass scored his first league goal for the Hammers since joining in January 2017 when he curled Mamadou Sakho's headed clearance inside the near post from the edge of the box.
Two goals in three minutes then looked to have sealed three points, with Javier Hernandez turning in the rebound from Felipe Anderson's free-kick (62), before the Brazilian secured a goal for himself with a stunning curled effort from the edge of the box (65).
Substitute Jeffrey Schlupp nodded in from a corner to set up a grandstand finish (76), but it never emerged as the hosts saw out a third straight league win for the first time since December 2016.
Palace went in front with their first genuine attack of the game, when Patrick van Aanholt's free-kick from deep on the left was headed back across goal by James Tomkins, and with West Ham trying to play offside, McArthur snuck in to finish beyond Lukasz Fabianski.
West Ham dominated much of the opening period but played into Palace's hands by delivering cross after cross which Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho dealt with without issue.
Instead, the visitors were inches away from doubling their half-time lead when Luka Milivojevic's free-kick cannoned off the bar in injury time with Fabianski beaten.
West Ham hauled off Lukas Perez at the break for Andy Carroll, and as a new focal point, he made an immediate impact - although it was Snodgrass who arguably proved the greatest catalyst when he curled in a fine finish from 18 yards three minutes after the restart.
The Hammers' goalscoring streak was not quite as rapid as it had been against Cardiff on Tuesday, but within 14 minutes of their first they had a second. Hernandez timed his run perfectly to stay onside when Anderson's free-kick was palmed straight back into danger by Wayne Hennessey, and he fired into the roof of the net.
Anderson added a quick-fire third when West Ham moved the ball right to left in two swift passes, and with Aaron Wan-Bissaka too far away to close him down, he curled a stunning effort over Hennessey and inside the far post from almost the left corner of the area.
Palace threatened a comeback out of nowhere when Schlupp nodded in Max Meyer's delivery from a short corner, but even the visitors themselves never looked like they had the belief they would grab an unlikely point - and they never came close to doing so.
Manuel Pellegrini: We need to win one game to cancel out that bad start with four defeats in a row, but we must look to be in the top half going forward, and we are now in 10th, right in the middle. We have three more games to complete the first round and I hope we can continue adding points.
Roy Hodgson: They scored three goals, but I didn't think they push us back, maybe in the first half more than in the second but they were leading at half-time.
I don't think you ever feel confident in the Premier League unless you're two or three ahead. There might be some teams who disagree, but we never think that because we're leading that will definitely end up in three points.
As well as scoring his first West Ham league goal, Snodgrass put in more quality crosses (4) than anyone else on the pitch and had an excellent game.
His goal came from his only shot of the match, but he also contributed three key passes and ran further than anyone else on the pitch - an impressive statistic for a player urged to lose weight by Manuel Pellegrini in pre-season.
West Ham travel to Fulham on December 15 at 5.30pm, while Crystal Palace host Leicester earlier that day at 3pm.
