From Brooks to Meyer: key winners and losers as Bournemouth beat Crystal Palace

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Bournemouth have moved up to seventh in the Premier League after a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Monday.

The Cherries took the lead after just five minutes through David Brooks, as the Welshman sent a curling shot past compatriot Wayne Hennessey from just inside the box.

But Eddie Howe’s men allowed Palace back into the game and Patrick van Aanholt equalised for the Eagles at the start of the second half.

Just when it looked like Palace had earned themselves a point, Bournemouth were awarded a penalty with five minutes to go following an elbow from Mamadou Sakho. Junior Stanislas scored and the Cherries took all three points.

Here are the winners and losers of the match.

Winner: David Brooks

David Brooks has had a solid enough start to the season for both club and country, but against Crystal Palace the Welshman enjoyed arguably one of his better games for Bournemouth.

The 21-year-old opened the scoring after just five minutes, his first goal for Bournemouth, getting onto the end of Callum Wilson’s pass before beating Hennessey with neat side-footed finish into the top right corner.

But his game was more than just the goal, as he constantly gave van Aanholt something to think about defensively with stopped the left-back from getting forward as much as he would have liked.

Taken off just before the hour mark as Palace drew level, Brooks can take confidence from his first-half performance and build from it for the future.

Loser: Wilfried Zaha

Wilfried Zaha is a good footballer, there’s no disputing that. But the forward is not good enough to save Crystal Palace on his own week in, week out – not that it’s his fault.

Against Bournemouth, the Ivorian was supremely let down by his team-mates for the most part, who often left him doing much of the work on the left wing alongside van Aanholt with very little support from elsewhere.

Though Christian Benteke has been poor this season, the Belgian’s understanding with Zaha was missed with Jordan Ayew failing to replicate the man he has replaced up front for Palace.

Booed from the start of the match, for whatever reason the Bournemouth fans have, Zaha usually does not let his critics get the better of him, but the forward did not have the greatest game with everything seeming to going against him.

When he might have been in past his markers, there was a slip. Where he may have played in a team-mate, there was a misplaced pass. When Zaha thought he was fouled, nothing was given.

But eventually, in the second half, something did come off for Zaha as he was the beneficiary of a lucky bounce before playing in van Aanholt for the full-back’s equaliser.

Winner: Lewis Cook

It has been a strange 2018 for Lewis Cook, from making his England debut and being named on the standby list for the World Cup in Russia to struggling at Bournemouth.

Despite his ascension in the eyes of England manager Gareth Southgate, Cook has not done enough to please Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe at the start of the season and managed just 29 minutes across four Premier League appearances prior to Monday’s match.

But the midfielder did get his first league start of the season against Palace and showed Howe exactly what he has been missing in the middle of the pitch.

Alongside the impressive Jefferson Lerma, Cook helped to keep Crystal Palace’s midfield under control for most of the match, nullifying the attacking threat of Max Meyer and James McArthur in sitting just in front of the Bournemouth defence.

Though his re-emergence may be too late to earn a call-up for England’s next squad to face Croatia and Spain in the Uefa Nations League, Cook has served the Three Lions set-up a reminder of his existence.

Loser: Max Meyer

Max Meyer was starting to become one of the forgotten summer signings of the Premier League, playing just 63 minutes following his move from Schalke on a free transfer.

But, like Cook, Meyer was given his first Premier League start of the season on Monday night having seen most of his playing time come in the Carabao Cup.

Unlike Cook, however, Meyer failed to make much of an impact on the game, showing why Roy Hodgson has often preferred Cheikhou Kouyate in midfield alongside McArthur and Milivojevic.

The German midfielder looked a little lost in the midfield battle against Lerma and Cook, despite having more touches of the ball than any of the opposition players.

But it was what Meyer did, or didn’t do, with the ball that stood out as he rarely pushed his side forward – often choosing the safer option as opposed to game-changing passes.

Winner: Patrick van Aanholt

When Zaha wasn’t having his best game, Palace needed someone to rescue them from the abyss and that man was van Aanholt.

After a slow first half, van Aanholt’s influence grew as he took on a lot of Palace’s attacking responsibilities and it paid off just 10 minutes after half-time.

With Zaha moving inside the Dutch full-back pushed on to a winger’s position and was in the right place on the edge of Bournemouth’s area to latch onto his team-mates pass and equalise.

Van Aanholt was marginally offside but was given the benefit of the doubt and took his finish well, drilling in with his weaker foot past Asmir Begovic.

Things were certainly smiling down on van Aanholt in the second half as his late mistake did not go unpunished with Callum Wilson missing a golden opportunity to put Bournemouth ahead once again.

Though van Aanholt’s goal would ultimately be in vain…

Loser: Mamadou Sakho

For 86 minutes of the match, Mamadou Sakho had been fairly solid at the back for Crystal Palace, keeping Callum Wilson and Joshua King fairly quiet.

But with less than five minutes to go the centre-back had a moment of madness only he can explain, elbowing Lerma inside the box from a set-piece directly in front of Mike Dean, giving the referee one of the easiest calls of his career – despite all the jokes about his eye for the spotlight.

Junior Stanislas stepped up to take the spot-kick and confidently beat Wayne Hennessey to give Bournemouth all three points.

The post From Brooks to Meyer: key winners and losers as Bournemouth beat Crystal Palace appeared first on Squawka News.



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