West Ham earn valuable point at London rivals Crystal Palace

At a glance

  • West Ham two points ahead of 18th-placed Tottenham after stalemate

  • Crystal Palace's Brennan Johnson heads best chance wide

  • Konstantinos Mavropanos comes closest for the Hammers

  • Point for West Ham confirms Wolves' relegation

  • PLAYER RATER

Sam Drury
BBC Sport journalist

West Ham missed the chance to move four points clear of the Premier League relegation zone as they played out a goalless draw at Crystal Palace.

A point for the Hammers means Wolves are the first top-flight team to be relegated this season.

But the stalemate at Selhurst Park keeps the gap between Nuno Espirito Santo's side and 18th-placed Tottenham at two points, as it was before the weekend's fixtures.

An energetic start from both sides did not translate into goalmouth action with chances few and far between throughout.

Brennan Johnson had the best opportunity of the game in the 20th minute but the Palace winger put a free header well wide from seven yards out.

West Ham looked the more likely as the first half went on with striker Taty Castellanos' goal-bound overhead kick blocked by Maxence Lacroix with Dean Henderson beaten before in-form centre-back Konstantinos Mavropanos saw a thumping header well saved by the Palace keeper.

Chances were even scarcer after the break, although substitute Ismaila Sarr did think he had scored a late winner for the hosts, only for the referee to rule it out for a handball by Jean-Philippe Mateta in the build-up.

The home side looked the more likely to find a winner in the closing stages but Oliver Glasner's side had to settle for a point that leaves them 13th, albeit only five points behind Chelsea in sixth.

Analysis: Point gained or missed opportunity for West Ham?

'It will go all the way' - Nuno on relegation battle after Palace draw

A game in which so little happened could yet come to prove pivotal for West Ham but in a good way or bad?

How Hammers fans come to view this result will be determined by whether or not they stay up - were they in a more comfortable position, it's doubtful they would remember it at all.

The visitors were the better side in the first half and moved the ball nicely but failed to turn some promising openings into many chances of note.

Mavropanos' header from El Hadji Malick Diouf's cross was as clear a sight of goal as they had all night.

But where they lacked the ruthlessness up front, there was no lack of resilience defensively as they restricted Palace to just one shot on target despite the home side finishing stronger.

That much will please Nuno but he and fans might wonder if it might have been worth taking a risk or two more when they were on top.

Certainly turning one point into three would have felt huge for their survival chances but given how much of a blow it would have felt had they lost, the Hammers - for now at least - must view this as another point towards their goal.

Analysis: Canvot impresses in resolute Palace defence

Palace not clinical enough - Glasner

After the joyous celebrations that followed qualifying for the Conference League semi-finals on Thursday, it was back to the grind for Palace.

And for much of the game, that is what it was for Palace - a grind.

But while Glasner made four changes to the team that started at Fiorentina, they all came further up the pitch as he stuck with his trusted goalkeeper and back five.

The outcome was a 12th clean sheet of the season to extend the Eagles' unbeaten run in the league to four games.

Henderson's superb save and Lacroix's block were the vital moments in ensuring another shutout but the efforts of 19-year-old Jaydee Canvot to limit the threat of West Ham talisman Jarrod Bowen were even more impressive.

At the other end, it was another frustrating night for £35m January signing Johnson and it was only when Sarr and Mateta came on that Palace started to cause West Ham consistent problems.

While three points would have put Palace right in the mix of the battle for European qualification, a draw keeps them within striking distance and, having experienced the feeling of going deep in Europe this term, their hunger to get back there is only likely to grow.

What next for these sides?

Crystal Palace travel to Anfield to face Liverpool, while West Ham host Everton with both games at 15:00 BST on Saturday.

Player of the match

K. Mavropanos
7.03
1 D. Henderson
6.52
23 J. Canvot
6.34
3 T. Mitchell
6.30
26 C. Richards
6.22
5 M. Lacroix
6.16
14 J. Mateta
5.79
2 D. Muñoz
5.74
7 I. Sarr
5.71
18 D. Kamada
5.63
8 J. Lerma
5.62
19 W. Hughes
5.60
55 J. Devenny
5.49
10 Yeremy Pino
5.22
22 J. Strand Larsen
5.02
11 B. Johnson
4.93
Back to team tabs

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.