January 30 2018

Christian Benteke

Crystal Palace were held to a 1-1 derby draw away at West Ham United.

Although they allowed West Ham back in the game to equalise, Roy Hodgson's side will see it as an important point towards Premier League safety.

Palace had to be grateful for James Tomkins' intervention early on as the former Hammer stuck out a leg to divert the ball away from Javier Hernandez scoring a near-certain goal.

The Eagles then got their noses in front after 24 minutes through Christian Benteke who headed in a right-wing cross from Andros Townsend for only his second goal of the season.

Joy turned to despair as they suffered another injury problem after Bakary Sako eventually hobbled off injured four minutes before the break following a very robust tackle from Pablo Zabaleta. Fit-again Yohan Cabaye replaced the winger.

And just two minutes later, West Ham drew level from the penalty spot after Tomkins' trailing leg, as he attempted to block Hernandez' shot, brought the Mexican down in the area. Mark Noble then put away the resulting spot kick.

In the six minutes of first-half stoppage time, Townsend drew a low parry from keeper Adrian and James McArthur nodded a good chance wide.

Few chances were created in the second period with West Ham coming closer to scoring after Wayne Hennessey beat out an effort from Hernandez. Both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils.

West Ham: Adrian, Byram, Collins, Ogbonna, Rice, Cresswell, Zabaleta, Kouyate (Oxford 86), Noble, Mario, Hernandez.

Not used: Hart, Fonte, Cullen, Quina, Haksabanovic, Martinez.

Palace: Hennessey, Fosu-Mensah, Kelly, Tomkins, Van Aanholt, Townsend, Milivojevic, McArthur, Zaha, Sako (Cabaye 41), Benteke.

Not used: Speroni, Ward, Souare, Sakho, Riedewald, Lee.

2017/18 match reports

2017/18 results

2017/18 squad stats

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