Eagles wings clipped by Bees for a second time this season - as game turns on penalty controversy
Crystal Palace (0) 1 Esse 85
Brentford (0) 2 Mbeumo pen 65, Schade 80
Romain Esse scored moments after coming off the bench for his debut but Brentford repeated their opening weekend victory over the Eagles to claim a double that gave them only a second away win of the campaign.
The 19-year-old £12m signing from Millwall was on hand to turn in a low cross from Daniel Munoz at the far post that gave his new team hope after they found themselves 2-0 down.
But it was not quite enough to save the day. Palace did not cook up enough danger during the 90 minutes or do enough to argue they were hard done by.
A game that came to life in the second half after a soporific opening 45 minutes turned on a second half flashpoint - a penalty to the Bees that Bryan Mbeumo put away, but only at the second attempt as a retake was controversially ordered after the Cameroonian had planted his first effort against a post.
It was a tough call on the Eagles by ref Tony Harrington and came after VAR spotted Marc Guehi fractionally inside the D as he raced in first to clear the rebound.
Palace began with greater purpose - Jean-Philippe Mateta checking out the strength of Mark Flekken's wrists with a powerful shot the keeper deflected wide but the languid style of Eberechi Eze did have home fans hankering for a quicker tempo.
The midfielder at least got into as good position to curl an effort at goal after picking up a cross along the edge of the area from Tyrick Mitchell, who was making his 150th Premier League start..
The Bees took a while to venture forward with any great purpose but eventually Yoane Wissa worked himself a bit of space to arrow a low shot Dean Henderson got down to palm for a corner and Bryan Mbeumo's free-kick did not miss an upright by much.
A game desperately on need of a goal after a first half when the Palace xG of 0.2 was even higher than Brentford's 0.18 almost got one when Eze's free-kick cannoned off a body in the ball to strike the foot of a post.
It seemed to bring the game to life at last.
Moments later and a Keane Lewis-Potter dipper from outside the box was creeping into the top corner until Henderson got across to save and when Maxence Lacroix's attempted clearance resulted in boot against the shins of Nathan Collins, the visitors had that vital penalty.
The goal - and a feeling of injustice - seemed to knock some of the stuffing out of the Eagles and the Bees made the game safe when Kevin Schade put away a Mikkel Damsgaard cross from the right with a lovely header - taking a blow in the face from Chris Richards in doing so. It was painful enough to leave him dazed and substituted.
Romain Esse then came on with seven minutes left - plus nine of injury time - and almost immediately stole in at the far post to keep Palace interested. But it was not meant to be. An Ese free-kick over the bar the closest they came to levelling.
The consolation for the Palace, if they can find one after seeing a six-game unbeaten run come to an end is that their position in the table looks comfortable and it should still be a comfortable jog to the finishing line.
That goes for both sides really, who are ensconced in mid-table. Unless something drastic happens. Neither side looks likely to have the carrot of Europe or the stress of relegation to concern them - even if it is only a modest two wins in 10 now for the Bees in all competitions.
Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Richards (Kamada 84), Lacroix, Guehi - Munoz, Hughes (Esse 83), Lerma, Mitchell - Sarr (Nketiah 72), Eze - Mateta
Bees: (4-2-3-1) Flekken - Roerslev, Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter - Norgaard (Jensen 54), Janelt - Mbeumo, Damsgaard (Mee 94), Schade (Yarmoliuk 84) - Wissa
Attendance: 25,066
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