JEAN-PHILIPPE MATETA scored for a fifth consecutive home match to fire Crystal Palace to an impressive 2-0 win over Newcastle.
It was a deserved victory for Oliver Glasner’s team and continued their resurgence under the Austrian, with this a third Premier League success in a row after notable wins over West Ham and Liverpool.
Mateta broke the deadlock at Selhurst Park with a smart 55th-minute finish before he added a second late on to end Newcastle’s four-match unbeaten run and damage their prospects of securing European football for next season.
Newcastle had looked sluggish in the opening exchanges, despite this being their first match in 10 days, but sprung into life after 29 minutes.
An excellent pass by Bruno Guimaraes sent Alexander Isak through on goal but Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson held his nerve to slide in to thwart the forward.
Mateta smashed an effort against the crossbar soon after, but the offside flag was raised before Eze had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Thomas Bramall as it remained goalless at the break.
Half-time did not provide the circuit breaker Newcastle required as Palace upped the ante and finally broke the deadlock.
Eze was involved with his incisive pass finding Mateta, who produced a slick one-two with Ayew before he slid home.
While the Magpies pushed for a late leveller, the struggled to fashion clear-cut chances and Palace put the game to bed with two minutes left.
Hughes exchanged passes with substitute Jeffrey Schlupp before he teed up Mateta, who scuffed through the legs of Dubravka for his eighth goal in nine games since the arrival of Glasner in February.
Elsewhere, at Molineux, referee Stuart Attwell was embroiled in further controversy after contentiously disallowing a Wolves goal in Bournemouth’s 1-0 win.
Attwell was already in the spotlight for his role as VAR in denying Nottingham Forest three penalties in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Everton, which led Forest to insinuate bias as he supports relegation rivals Luton.
And controversy followed him around after he adjudged Matheus Cunha to have fouled Justin Kluivert in an off-the-ball incident in the build up to Hee Chan Hwang’s second-half equaliser, which looked to have cancelled out Antoine Semenyo’s opener.
It was not spotted in real time but Attwell opted to give the foul following advice from VAR Darren England to watch it again on the pitchside monitor.
Attwell remained in the thick of the action as he then showed a straight red card to Bournemouth defender Milos Kerkez for a foul on Matt Doherty in a decision which survived another VAR check.
The controversy meant Semenyo’s first-half goal for the Cherries proved enough for a record-equalling sixth Premier League away win of the season.
They moved to within two points of registering their highest Premier League points tally, currently sitting on 45, one shy of their current record set in 2016/17.
For Wolves, this was a seventh game without a win in all competitions as they limped towards the finish line amid a chronic injury list.
