The ‘new manager bounce’ was there for all to see at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace flew out of the traps and ought to have taken the lead inside two minutes when a clever short corner worked its way to Jefferson Lerma on the edge of the area, but he skied his effort. Clearly unwise to Palace’s routine, the Clarets were almost stung by a variation midway through the first half, yet fortunately for them, James Trafford was on hand to beat away Joachim Andersen’s effort.
Trafford soon went from hero to zero though, as his hospital pass to Josh Brownhill on the edge of the area was cut out by Lerma, and the Burnley midfielder was left with no option but to haul him down 20 yards from goal. Losing a man strangely seemed to help Burnley, who looked more solid after going down to 10 than they did at 11v11. The numbers ought to have been even again before the hour mark, when already on a yellow card, Adam Wharton lunged into a challenge on Josh Cullen, but referee Lewis Smith decided it wasn’t worthy of sending the former Blackburn man off.
Even though they looked assured, it was wave after wave of Palace attack and they eventually got their just rewards when Jordan Ayew’s teasing delivery was headed home at the far post by Chris Richards – his first-ever Eagles goal. Having provided the first, Ayew was on the scoresheet himself soon after, sliding in at the far post to convert Matheus França’s far post delivery, although he was sweating on it after a lengthy VAR check confirmed Jean-Philippe Mateta was onside in the build-up.
Burnley had simply hit the self-implode button by now, and substitute Vitinho felling França within two minutes of his introduction summed up their afternoon. Mateta converted the subsequent penalty, but it was Burnley who thought they’d rounded off the scoring when David Datro Fofana snatched a would-be consolation goal, yet such was their luck today, that it was deemed that Lorenz Assignon impeded Sam Johnstone from an offside position.
That brought to an end yet another harrowing day for the Clarets, who look near-certainties to face the drop. It was a fantastic start to the Glasner era for Palace though, who are now looking up rather than over their shoulder.
