Jean-Philippe Mateta’s eighth goal of the season set Crystal Palace on course for a return to winning ways in the Premier League. Mateta’s opener on the half-hour was added to by an own goal from the Brentford captain, Nathan Collins, early in the second half as the Eagles backed up their win at Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with their first victory in four league games.
Oliver Glasner, the Palace manager, said: “We didn’t have a lot of time to train because we played Wednesday evening at Liverpool, coming home at three in the morning. Thursday was just recovery and yesterday we trained 25 minutes on the pitch then 15 minutes just defending throw-ins and attacking throw-ins because we knew it would be a topic today.
“Credit to my assistants who prepared all the clips and set up how we defended it, and also in attack so we could score from it.”
Palace’s Ismaïla Sarr looked to have forged an opportunity for himself when he got away from Kristoffer Ajer down the right but chose to square the ball rather than shoot and Sepp van den Berg intercepted for Brentford. It was a rare opening in what was a cagey beginning, with Mateta’s deflected header from a Yéremy Pino cross gently falling into the arms of Caoimhín Kelleher.
The hosts were ahead after 30 minutes when Daichi Kamada’s free-kick from deep was nodded across by Jefferson Lerma for Mateta to direct a lovely header that looped into the top corner, leaving Kelleher standing.
Brentford gave themselves a mountain to climb by presenting Palace with a second goal in the 52nd minute when Lerma’s throw flicked off the head of Collins and into his own net. Collins had another moment to forget a minute later when he gave the ball away to Sarr inside his own half, with the Senegal international racing clear before shooting against the post.
The visitors still struggled to provide much of a threat up front, with Keith Andrews introducing Mathias Jensen, Keane Lewis-Potter and Vitaly Janelt. Two of those combined for Brentford’s best chance after 74 minutes when Jensen’s low cross into the area reached Janelt who miscued his shot well wide.
Another substitute, Reiss Nelson, then tested Dean Henderson from outside the area when his curling effort needed to be pushed away by the Palace goalkeeper. It was the only time he was called upon, however, as the Eagles comfortably saw out the remainder of the contest.
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Andrews said: “It was a tight game, clearly a game where set pieces were very, very prevalent in how the result went. In terms of our performance, did we reach the heights of recent weeks individually, collectively? No. But having said that, I felt like there wasn’t a lot in the game.”
