Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace: Eagles drop more points in thrilling Premier League draw

One starts to wonderment whether Crystal Palace truly will be good successful the end.

2-1 up aft 76 minutes, this was the benignant of lucifer they would person won successful the 2nd fractional of past season.

Instead, Ross Barkley’s well-placed header earned Aston Villa a 2-2 gully and reminded Oliver Glasner and his players that those heady days are agelong agone now. Villa are simply excessively bully a broadside to simply bow to a 2nd fractional spent packed down the ball. Points dropped again for Palace, inactive successful the relegation zone.

The Eagles mislaid Michael Olise successful the summertime but besides allowed Odsonne Edouard, Jordan Ayew and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi to depart, without past signing 4 caller attacking players to regenerate them. The chickens travel location to roost successful games similar this.

Villa could bring connected the likes of Jhon Duran, Emi Buendia and Jaden Philogene. In Glasner’s reserves, by contrast, were the defensively minded Jefferson Lerma, Jeffrey Schlupp, Chris Richards and Nathaniel Clyne, positive a fistful of academy players connected which Palace’s hopes cannot reasonably beryllium hung. Squad extent remains a glaring issue.

It had each started truthful good for Palace, with November by present a rather unforgettable period for Justin Devenny.

After a Premier League debut connected November 9 and his Northern Ireland elder debut connected Monday, present came a bonus for the 21-year-old, who struck beautifully to enactment the Eagles up earlier the interruption with his archetypal extremity for the club.

A 2nd triumph astatine Villa Park successful 24 days — the archetypal successful the Carabao Cup — would person done the Eagles the satellite of good. The archetypal fractional saw a assured marque of football, Glasner sticking stubbornly to his much-maligned 3-4-2-1 enactment and it paying off.

But injury-ravaged Palace started the time having scored less goals than everyone barroom bottom-of-the-league Southampton, and possibly inevitably they sank further and further backmost successful the second-half drizzle, beckoning Villa onto them and yet paying the price.

It indispensable besides beryllium said that Cheick Doucoure struggled with the strength of the lucifer successful lone his 2nd commencement of the season. Injuries person plagued his past 12 months, but portion crippled clip astatine Villa Park was nary uncertainty invaluable to him, helium was noticeably disconnected the pace.

If the effect and the deficiency of options connected the seat were the learnings, the points of encouragement were mostly to beryllium recovered successful the archetypal half. Ismaila Sarr combined good with Jean-Philippe Mateta, astir notably erstwhile Mateta played Sarr done and the Senegalese ran done confidently to nett his archetypal Palace goal, aft lone 4 minutes.

And Dean Henderson’s punishment prevention from Youri Tielemans yet made Devenny’s extremity possible, the youngster netting conscionable seconds after. It was an elastic prevention from 1 of the lone Palace players performing astatine a akin level to past season.

Last month’s triumph implicit Tottenham remains the Eagles’ lone successful the league this season. A aureate accidental for the 2nd was squandered here.