Jean-Philippe Mateta bags brace as Crystal Palace beat Graham Potter’s West Ham

By Andy Sims, PA

Jean-Philippe Mateta scored twice to condemn West Ham boss Graham Potter to a first Premier League defeat as Crystal Palace won 2-0.

The French striker made it four goals in his last three matches as Oliver Glasner’s Eagles secured back-to-back away victories.

The Hammers also had defender Konstantinos Mavropanos sent off towards the end of a miserable afternoon for Potter.

England head coach Thomas Tuchel was in attendance at the London Stadium, casting his eye over Palace pair Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi, among others.

Eze was the first to create a goalscoring chance, exchanging passes with Daniel Munoz before curling over.

Mateta then drew an unconvincing save from Lukasz Fabianski with a 25-yard drive before Maxence Lacroix headed an Eze free-kick over.

But a disjointed first half was neatly summed up when West Ham midfielder Guido Rodriguez gave the ball away 20 yards out and Palace winger Daichi Kamada blazed his shot wildly over the crossbar.

Potter, bidding to shore up a Hammers defence which has been leaking on average two goals a game, started with a back five.

He picked Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus up front together, but all the hosts had to show for their attacking endeavours before the break was a half-hearted penalty appeal from Tomas Soucek, who went down far too easily under pressure from Munoz.

It took Palace just two minutes of the second half to take the lead through Mateta’s 10th goal of the season.

Lacroix cleared the ball from his own penalty area towards Ismaila Sarr, who flicked it on to Eze.

Tuchel would have enjoyed the midfielder’s first-time ball, which sent Mateta racing towards goal.

With Hammers defender Max Kilman back-pedalling and leaving far too much space, Mateta’s low strike from the edge of the box beat an unsighted Fabianski.

Potter, who had replaced Rodriguez with Carlos Soler – a goalscorer in Tuesday’s win over Fulham – at the break, quickly made three more substitutions with Danny Ings, Ollie Scarles and 18-year-old debutant Lewis Orford introduced.

The changes briefly pepped West Ham up and Ings saw a shot blocked before Edson Alvarez drove the rebound wide.

But their hopes of snatching something were ended when they were reduced to 10 men after Mavropanos was shown a second yellow card for a high boot on Mateta.

And three minutes from the end Fabianski brought Eddie Nketiah down in the area and Mateta dispatched the penalty to wrap up Palace’s victory.