Crystal Palace fought back for a second consecutive game as Alan Pardew continued his 100% record at the club after a late Dwight Gayle winner at Turf Moor.
It was a sluggish start from the Eagles and it turned out to be costly, quite quickly as Burnley’s Ben Mee made the most of his teams’ pressure on the Palace defence early on as he managed to get onto the end of Kieran Trippier’s corner as he got in-front of Joe Ledley before heading the ball downwards and into the back of the net past Julian Speroni just after the 12 minute mark.
The hosts’ early pressure continued to mount after the opening goal of the game with Danny Ings who had been the main threat for Burnley in attack having a pop at goal but only finding clean air over the top of the bar.
Shortly after though, the hosts added to their opening goal as when Joel Ward attempted to shield the ball out of play the defender had seemed to be fouled by Scott Arfield but after Phil Dowd not seeing anything wrong with that part of the play, the midfielder continued his run down the left wing before finding Danny Ings in the middle of the box who calmly slotted it past an onrushing Speroni.
Pardew’s side found the second goal as a wake-up call as they began to hold possession with more authority and confidence, passing the ball with more precision compared to earlier stages in the game despite Burnley continuing to be a threat when they did go forward.
After Zaha swapped wings, the winger provided more danger to the hosts’ defence with his first run causing instant chaos as now on the right wing he found an unmarked James McArthur in front of goal who was denied with a block before the ball came back out to an waiting Dwight Gayle who fired the loose ball past the Burnley goalkeeper.
The Eagles continued to seek a comeback after scoring one of their own with Zaha who is on loan from Manchester United, providing the main threat on the counter-attack and his partner in crime for creating the first goal James McArthur saw another shot on goal denied as Heaton made a save to his right.
Sanogo who had only joined Crystal Palace at the start of the week nearly found the net in his first appearance as the on-loan Arsenal player’s header on goal deflected off the body of a Burnley defender and over the bar for a corner but for referee Phil Dowd, he needed a sit down as he deemed that there wasn’t enough time for the corner to be taken.
The start of the second half started in spectacular fashion for Pardew’s side with his half-time talk looking like it worked as Jason Puncheon who had very few opportunities on goal in the first half made a darting run towards the defenders before calmly slotting the ball as near to the post as possible, into the back of the net – giving the visitors Palace their fourth goal in two games.
It wasn’t the end for Palace their either but with goalmouth action drying up in the wintry conditions at Turf Moor a number of fresh legs were needed to help boost the side further towards a winner and attempt their first comeback from two goals down in the Premier League.
Glenn Murray was denied his first goal since returning from his loan spell at Reading at the turn of the year by the post after he struck a venomous shot towards goal inside the area with the loose ball also finding him but unfortunately for him, it came back at some speed only allowing the striker to hit it wide of the goal.
After that chance, Murray helped his fellow striker Dwight Gayle to put away his second goal of the afternoon and Palace’s winner, as after a pass from Puncheon from the right hand side of the pitch found the player, he made a run towards goal which was helped by the former, blocking the defensive run of Trippier allowing the goalscorer to enter double figures for the season, putting another shot past goalkeeper Heaton and sending the travelling fans into joyous celebrations.
Palace held on for the remaining seven minutes of the game with Gayle adding another memorable final goal comeback to his ever-growing list at Crystal Palace.
