Brighton & Hove Albion 5-0 Crystal Palace: result and report

Report

Brighton & Hove Albion were expected to win this, and they did it emphatically. The 5-0 scoreline was settled almost before Crystal Palace had started, because three goals arrived inside the first ten minutes.

The collapse began with a Crystal Palace error. Jaydee Canvot turned the ball into his own net on four minutes. Diego Gómez made it 2-0 three minutes later from Olivier Boscagli's pass, and Yasin Ayari added a third on 10 minutes after Charalampos Kostoulas set him up.

Kostoulas then scored himself four minutes after half-time, so any hope of a Palace recovery ended quickly. Jack Hinshelwood came off the bench and made it five on 84 minutes, finishing a move from Luka Vuskovic. Vuskovic was named player of the match with a rating of 8.17.

Chances behind the scoreline

Brighton & Hove Albion deserved the win, though five goals overstates the gap slightly. They created 2.41 xG to Palace's 0.56, and had 12 shots to four. The clearest sign of their superiority is shots on target: nine against one.

Yet five goals from that chance total is a generous return. One of the five was an own goal, while Brighton missed one of their three big chances. The pressure figures still back up the overall picture: Brighton spent far more of the match pushing Palace back than the other way round.

Crystal Palace's near misses

Crystal Palace were not entirely toothless, despite the scoreline. They hit the woodwork twice, and those near misses were the only real moments when Bart Verbruggen's clean sheet looked in danger. Even so, a single shot on target all match explains why they never got back into it.