NEWCASTLE NIGHTMARE SLOWS EUROPE BID AS CRYSTAL PALACE HIGHLIGHT OLIVER GLASNER'S NEW VISION

Jean-Philippe Mateta fired Crystal Palace to a third straight win as the Oliver Glasner revolution continues to pick up pace.

And the striker’s 10th and 11th league goals of the season on a dominant night dealt a big blow to Newcastle’s hopes of a sixth-place finish.

Eddie Howe’s side, overtaken by Manchester United, produced a stinker in south London and the deficit would have been greater were it not for goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

A “baffled” Howe described his team as “rusty” after 10 days without a game, and he added: “We were disappointing in most aspects of our play. We had to perform better. It was a missed opportunity.”

Despite Michael Olise starting from the bench, Palace made all the running until a late Toon surge as Glasner’s vision begins to bear fruit.

In midfield Will Hughes crunched into tackles, while Adam Wharton dictated the tempo alongside him. And the thrilling Eberechi Eze left Newcastle’s defence dazed and confused through his movement and vision.

“Now we'll go for four wins in a row,” Glasner said, toasting Palace being mathematically safe from relegation with four games to spare. “It was a great performance. I hope the players get addicted to winning games, to this feeling and these emotions.”

Palace did require patience, with Mateta’s first arriving in the 55th minute - but it was worth the wait. Eze found him with a diagonal pass on the edge of the area and the centre forward played a swift one-two with Jordan Ayew. Upon receiving the ball back he composed himself before firing ruthlessly past Dubravka and into the bottom left corner.

The majority of their first-half shots had come from a safe enough distance for Dubravka to react, with the pick of the opportunities a Mateta header that he glanced over the bar.

Newcastle did almost take an undeserved lead half an hour in when Alexander Isak outran Joachim Andersen to reach a Bruno Guimaraes pass - only for Dean Henderson to emerge off his line to thwart the striker before he could shoot.

But Palace continued to produce the better stuff and the opener arrived 10 minutes into the second period as the front three combined with great fluency.

Any suggestion that conceding would wake Newcastle from their slumber was misplaced as Palace appeared more likely to find a second than concede.

Dubravka held a Mateta header well, Eze had an effort blocked by Schar and Hughes curled narrowly over.

Newcastle had claims for a penalty when Longstaff went down under pressure from Hughes. But referee Thomas Bramall pointed for a goal kick and the subsequent VAR check proved him right.

Then Mateta made sure of the win two minutes from time following another neat passing move involving sub Jeffrey Schlupp and Hughes down the left. His finish went straight through Dubravka’s legs.

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2024-04-24T21:21:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd