Crystal Palace vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Premier League.
Selhurst ParkAttendance24,741.
Report and free match highlights as Odsonne Edouard breaks deadlock early in second half before Hee-Chan Hwang equalises; Eberechi Eze pokes Palace back in front and then Edouard bags his second for 3-1; Matheus Cunha scores consolation in final minute of injury time
Sunday 3 September 2023 20:06, UK
Odsonne Edouard netted twice and Eberechi Eze saw his persistence pay off to score the other as Crystal Palace beat Wolves 3-2 with all the goals coming in the second half at Selhurst Park.
Both sides had only scored four Premier League goals between them coming into the match which looked like it was heading for a stalemate until the game burst into life.
Edouard broke the deadlock 11 minutes after the break when he turned in Tyrick Mitchell's perfect low cross from close range although Wolves substitute Hee-Chan Hwang, on the pitch for only five minutes, glanced in Pedro Neto's free-kick for the equaliser.
However, Eze, who had taken 16 shots in the first three games and not found the net, poked home to put Palace back in front before Edouard wrapped up the points late on with a clinical finish, proving crucial as Matheus Cunha scored in the final minute of injury time.
Wolves had nothing to show for a bright start before Palace's Eze went down in the area under a challenge from Joao Gomes with a VAR check confirming referee Robert Jones' decision not to award a penalty.
Palace, though, should have led moments later when Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa played Gomes into trouble on the edge of their box. Jefferson Lerma nipped in to steal the ball and squared for Jordan Ayew, whose effort was superbly cleared off the line by Max Kilman and Edouard blazed the follow-up over.
Wolves' best moment came three minutes before the break when Neto dazzled Joel Ward with four stepovers before firing a shot at goal which took a slight deflection and had to be tipped over by Sam Johnstone.
The second half looked to be heading the same way until Mitchell's cross from the left was put home by Edouard.
Wolves didn't look like they had a goal in them, but Hwang steered Neto's free-kick in off his shoulder to level within 10 minutes. All three scorers of their goals this season have come off the bench.
Palace responded well to the equaliser, seeing Jordan Ayew's volley pushed away by Sa and the goalkeeper then flung to his left to parry Eze's free-kick.
Eze wasn't to be denied though after he cleverly flicked the ball into his path from Mateta's knockdown and poked it into the corner.
Edouard sealed the points as Mateta once again set him up to drill home from just inside the box, but Cunha gave Palace something to think about in the final seconds of the match, when he headed in from a Neto cross.
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson:
"It's been a good afternoon because we won. There were a lot of things we didn't want to see from the team as Wolves were very good. We were dependent on those three very good goals and a much better performance. One should never be too critical though, I'm very happy.
"We were nowhere near where we would like to be but three points is such a difficult thing to do in the Premier League so one should never be too critical when you do it though. As you know there will be other games where we play much better than we do today and we lose.
"The 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, we deserved a lot more, today Wolves deserved a bit more. I don't think we produced enough to do that for long periods in the game.
Wolves manager Gary O'Neil:
"O'Neil: We felt we had good control of it. Palace took advantage of a couple of our errors with the ball at the technical breakdowns. We had control of the game, we arrived the final third 60 times.
"Everyone keeps talking about that's where we need to improve. We keep arriving and we weren't overly threatening, even though we did create a couple of chances.
"On the sideline, we never felt we were under massive threat. It was just small situations where they are a good threat on the counter. Eze and Edouard gave us a lot of issues when they turned us over in silly areas."
Play Fantasy Premier League and see more stats here
Crystal Palace head to Aston Villa after the international break on Saturday September 16. Kick-off 3pm.
Wolves return to Molineux for the visit of Liverpool on the same day with kick-off at 12.30pm.
