This meeting of 13th and 14th in the Premier League hardly seemed a salivating prospect. How wrong we were.
West Brom were producing their most vibrant and exciting performance of the season, with the back-in-favour Saido Berahino powering them to a three-goal lead by the half-hour as Crystal Palace were blown away.
He inspired Craig Gardner’s opener, then scored a beautiful volley of his own after Craig Dawson had doubled the lead.
Saido Berahino made it 3-0 to the Baggies when his cushioned volley after a brilliant ball by Stephane Sessegnon beat Hennessey
Saido Berahino celebrates with Craig Gardner after the midfielder opened the scoring for West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday
Craig Dawson is mobbed by his team-mates after scoring his side's second of the game with a thumping header past Wayne Hennessey
Dawson rose every other player in the Crystal Palace penalty area to power his header past Hennessey who was left standing in his goal
Yet the Baggies were left clinging on as Palace rallied after half-time, a double from Connor Wickham bringing some familiar nerves back to the surface.
The Baggies had clearly identified some weakness on the left-side of Palace’s defence and pushed men forward to test Joel Ward and Damien Delaney early on.
It came a little surprise, therefore, that their 12th minute opener exploited a gap on this side.
After a week in which Berahino finally apologised for his deadline day tweet threatening to go on strike unless he was sold to Tottenham, the home fans sung his name in the opening minutes.
And he demonstrated his brilliance once again with an exquisite outside-of-the-foot ball to Salomon Rondon that split the Palace defence asunder. Rondon’s shot was blocked by the leg of Wayne Hennessey but Gardner was following up, applying a straightforward finish.
With Palace looking fragile following their torrid recent run, the Baggies went in for the kill. When the livewire Stephane Sessegnon again beat his man down the right, he was bundled over in a dangerous position.
Connor Wickham pulled a goal back for Crystal Palace shortly after the start of the second half when took advantage of poor defending
The 22-year-old striker blew a kiss to the travelling Crystal Palace fans who had not had much to smile or get excited about before his goal
Wickham gave Palace a major opportunity to claw their way back to a draw when his beautiful left-footed volley made the score 3-2
There was only one place Wickham's strike was destined to go once it left his foot and that was past Foster in the top left hand corner
West Brom's Chris Brunt was forced to leave the pitch in the first half of the game against Crystal Palace when he pulled up with an injury
He was stretchered off by a number of West Brom's medical staff after 43 minutes and was replaced by centre-back James Chester
Gardner swung across the perfect free-kick and Dawson rose, unmarked, to power a header into the bottom corner. West Brom had scored as many goals in the opening 20 minutes as they had in their previous five league games - the crowd didn’t quite know what to do.
Emmanuel Adebayor has made a good start to life at Palace but his frustrations at barely seeing the ball boiled over into a nasty lunge at Dawson’s calf that might well have been a red card.
Then a cathartic moment for Berahino. Sessegnon collected the ball wide right from Rondon, looked up and played a laser-guided ball that sailed over Palace’s centre-backs. Berahino connected sweetly and volleyed it into the net with pace and precision.
It may have been his seventh of the season but it felt so much more important than that. Here was a forgiven man back in favour and back to his best.
It could have been worse for Palace - in stoppage time, Gardner’s low free-kick deflected off Ward and struck the post.
Palace introduced Yannick Bolasie for the ineffective Adebayor and pulled one back almost straight away when the confused Claudio Yacob, expecting Ben Foster to come and collect Delaney’s long ball, allowed Wickham to nip in and score.
Berahino crashed a shot against the bar before Palace made life really interesting when Wickham crashed home a glorious left-foot volley into the top corner.
Wilfried Zaha, who has said he thinks he deserves a place in the England team, certainly worried West Brom's defence when he got forward
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew could only watch as his side wilted under the pressure of West Brom who were a cut above his players
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Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish looked a frustrated man during his side's defeat by West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday
SOURCE: DAILYMAIL
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