Perfect start for Oliver Glasner as Crystal Palace see off Burnley
Crystal Palace 3 Burnley 0
Oliver Glasner’s first match in charge of Crystal Palace ended in a buoyant 3-0 victory over 10-man Burnley at Selhurst Park.
The relegation-threatened hosts got off to a bright start and were on the front foot for the majority of the first half, but it remained goalless after the break despite Josh Brownhill’s 38th-minute sending–off.
Chris Richards broke the deadlock with his first Premier League goal, a 68th-minute header, before Jordan Ayew doubled the Eagles’ advantage four minutes later and Jean-Philippe Mateta’s spot-kick made the game safe.
Burnley had a late consolation chalked off, another blow on a disappointing end to an afternoon that saw Palace move eight points clear of the relegation zone.
Glasner, treated to a warm ovation when he was introduced to the crowd, had named an unchanged line-up from the Eagles’ 1-1 draw with Everton and employed the same 3-4-2-1 formation.
The Austrian had spoken of his goal-scoring ambitions for an Eagles side who, with 28 from 26 matches, had at kick-off only scored more than bottom side Sheffield United, the 17th-placed Toffees and Saturday’s opponents.
The visitors opened with what could have been a costly error, when Charlie Taylor’s pass back to his goalkeeper completely evaded James Trafford and went out for a Palace corner inside two minutes.
Glasner will have been encouraged by the fighting start from the hosts, who had few clear-cut chances but consistently found themselves on the front foot, the visitors seeing little of the ball until a brief spell around the 20-minute mark.
From then it was all Palace, Odsonne Edouard first seeing a chance deflected off Lorenz Assignon, then Trafford doing well to block Joachim Andersen’s close-range
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