Emphatic Eagles take flight against Aston Villa in style, with Millwall cup tie on the horizon

Crystal Palace match programme: photo by @JTaylorSport

Crystal Palace 4 Aston Villa 1

Birthday Eagle Ismaila Sarr celebrated his 27th year with a double Selhurst Park salvo as Crystal Palace sent Aston Villa packing in emphatic fashion.

Palace boss Oliver Glasner witnessed only his side's third home win of the season - the others were over Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton - and it was fully merited on the night.

The brace by Sarr - who played with "real intensity" in Glasner's view - was augmented by further efforts by Jean-Philippe Mateta and substitute Eddie Nketiah for a richly deserved three points. It sets Palace, now in 12th place in the Premier League, up nicely for their south London FA Cup tie, against Millwall, at the weekend.

Orchestrating matters with conviction, the Eagles' clinical finishing proved far too much for the off-kilter Villa defence to handle. "The players played today at a fantastic level," said Glasner.

"I'm really pleased, especially with their reaction to the equaliser. When they (Villa) make it 1-1 a game can change, but the players responded well.

"The players know what they have to do and they were able to transform that on the pitch. We needed those two (recent) defeats against Brentford and Everton to show us what we needed and wanted to do. It's great to watch them and our players enjoying their game."

Sarr put the Londoners ahead in the 29th minute - the attacker gleefully driving the ball home from close range after Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez could only parry a header by Chris Richards. The goal was awarded following VAR check.

Controversial

Villa, though, were denied a leveller four minutes before the break in controversial VAR circumstances. Morgan Rogers converted from a well constructed link up on the counter attack with Ollie Watkins - the first time Unai Emery's side had really stretched the Palace rear guard. Yet Watkins was judged to be a sliver offside, much to the dismay of the Villa chief. "We deserved to be lucky today," Glasner added.

Nevertheless, seven minutes after half time, Rogers had his moment when he did grab what was a legitimate equaliser.

The impressive Villan fastened on to a traditional route one move from substitute keeper Robin Olsen's kick out, and he eased beyond the tame attentions of both Max Lacroix and Adam Wharton before calmly placing the ball into the net. This was to be as good as it got for the underwhelming Birmingham outfit, feeling the pinch of a hectic schedule, which includes their Champions League campaign.

In the 59th minute, the hosts went ahead. Mateta crashed the Eagles back into the lead - A loose ball following some customary Ebere Eze trickery fell fortuitously to the in-form hit man who made no mistake with a left footed drive from a dozen yards out.

It established a platform for Palace to release their verve - and they made it 3-1 after 71 minutes, Sarr adding his second of the Selhurst evening. On this occasion, he was in yards of space inside the danger zone to clip a left footed volley past Olsen into the corner of the Villa net.

Hurting

Palace were hurting the jaded visitors consistently with their direct style - and this classy display was reinforced during the final minute of normal time.

Eagles' substitute Nketiah, who replaced Sarr a few minutes earlier, had the simple task of adding some gloss, when he was on hand to tap home a low cross from the left by raiding Tyrick Mitchell.

With that, it was a suitably appropriate way to cap a performance of control and comfort from the effervescent south Londoners.

An embattled Emery, meanwhile, added: "We were fantastic in the first 20 minutes. But they (Crystal Palace) showed their capacity with their players to dominate, especially towards the end to win 4-1.

"We have to try and manage the frustration now and go on from here. We have not been consistent."