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March 1, 2015

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West Ham suffers Palace coup

GLENN Murray scored twice and was sent off as resurgent Crystal Palace registered a 3-1 English Premier League win against a toothless West Ham United at the Boleyn Ground yesterday to heap further misery on the stuttering east London side.

Murray’s header gave Palace a fortuitous lead in the 41st minute before Scott Dann doubled its advantage in the 51st with a powerful header.

Murray, in the thick of the action all afternoon, added his second in the 63rd but was dismissed six minutes later for a second yellow card before striker Enner Valencia scored a 76th-minute consolation goal for the hosts.

Eighth-placed West Ham has won just two of its last 12 league games since climbing to fourth in mid-December while Palace, up to 12th, has won four of their seven games since Alan Pardew joined the club last month.

The victory was especially sweet for Pardew, who was sacked by West Ham in 2006.

Meanwhile, Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says his expensively assembled squad has not challenged for the Premier League title this season because it does not have a prolific striker like its rivals.

Despite spending more than 150 million pounds (US$231.48 million) in the close season, including a 6-million pound season-long loan deal for Colombia striker Radamel Falcao, United has looked uncharacteristically subdued when going forward during the campaign.

Van Gaal has come under scrutiny for implementing a number of different formations and playing forward Wayne Rooney in central midfield as United has struggled to keep pace in the title race, with his team in fourth.

The Dutchman claims the club is 13 points adrift of leader Chelsea and eight behind local rival Manchester City in second because his strike force has failed to match the scoring exploits of Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero, who have 17 league goals each for their respective teams.

Netherlands captain Robin van Persie is United’s top scorer with 10 league goals, while Rooney and Falcao have struck eight and four, respectively.

“We cannot deny that at this moment we don’t have a striker who scores 20 goals in the season,” Van Gaal told reporters ahead of Sunderland’s visit to Old Trafford in the league yesterday.

“Robin van Persie cannot deny it, Falcao cannot deny it and Rooney — but he is not playing there so much any more.”

Van Gaal sold England striker Danny Welbeck to Arsenal and loaned Mexico’s Javier Hernandez to Real Madrid as part of a summer overhaul after taking over at Old Trafford, putting his faith in 19-year-old James Wilson as the fourth striker.

However, the Dutchman said a lack of goals from the current quartet did not mean he would look for more attacking reinforcements at the end of the season. “This doesn’t tell anything about next year,” Van Gaal said on Friday.




 

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