Crystal Palace claimed their first home win of the 2023-24 Premier League season with a 3-2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Selhurst Park.
Odsonne Edouard’s brace and Eberechi Eze’s first top-flight goal of the season saw the Eagles come up trumps after an all-action second half, where Hwang Hee-chan’s and Matheus Cunha’s responses for Gary O’Neil’s side was in vain.
While Palace spent most of the opening 15 minutes with their backs against the wall, Wolves did little to trouble Sam Johnstone and survived a couple of heart-in-mouth moments not long after
The VAR room spent a couple of minutes reviewing an apparent trip from Joao Gomes on Eze inside the area, but Wolves escaped giving away a potential penalty, before Max Kilman hacked Jordan Ayew’s goal-bound effort off the line after Edouard had squared for the Ghanaian attacker.
Tempers briefly flared as the two sides struggled to ask serious questions of one another, although Pedro Neto forced Johnstone to tip a looping effort over the top in the 42nd minute, and Gary O’Neil should have been the more satisfied of the two managers at half time.
However, with 11 minutes gone in the second half, Palace took the lead against the run of play, as Edouard made a quintessential striker’s run to the near post to tap home from Tyrick Mitchell’s wonderful low cross.
Elation turned to dejection for the Selhurst Park faithful just nine minutes after Edouard’s opener, though, as Wolves deservedly drew level through Hwang, only five minutes after the South Korean’s introduction.
An outswinging Neto free kick from the left was met by Hwang, and the ball struck the attacker’s shoulder before finding its way over the futile reach of Johnstone and into the far corner.
Wolves responded well to going behind, but Roy Hodgson’s side were similarly positive after conceding, and Jose Sa was forced to beat away an Ayew volley in the 73rd minute.
The Portuguese shot-stopper also flung himself across the line to parry an Eze free kick in the 78th minute, but the Palace star was not to be denied and restored the hosts’ lead seconds later.
A long ball over the top from Joel Ward found Jean-Philippe Mateta, who intelligently let the ball strike his back and roll into the path of Eze, who managed to poke the ball into the bottom corner on the stretch.
Only six minutes after Eze had opened his account for the season, Palace seemingly put the result beyond any doubt, thanks to some more innovative playmaking from substitute Mateta.
The 26-year-old – who has been linked with an exit from Selhurst Park over the summer – smartly linked up with Edouard on the edge of the area, and the former Celtic man rifled a low shot into the bottom corner for his second of the afternoon.
Eze nearly joined Edouard in the two-goal club in injury time as he tried to catch Sa out at his near post, but the Wolves goalkeeper got down quickly to turn the Englishman’s shot behind for a corner, which came to nothing.
O’Neil’s side set up a nervy final few seconds as Cunha headed home from another Neto delivery, but it was too little too late for the visitors to stage a remarkable fightback.
