Crystal Palace were back in action on Saturday after a long international break, with a far better showing than what we saw against Fulham.
The Eagles waited no time to silence Villa Park on Saturday afternoon as Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring after just four minutes thanks to a Jean-Philippe Mateta assist.
Aston Villa struck back in the 36th minute, however, this only lasted 10 minutes before Justin Devenny scored his first senior goal for Crystal Palace.
Villa ultimately came back to score another equaliser in the 77th minute with Ross Barkley stealing the two points out of Oliver Glasner’s hands.
The result sees Crystal Palace remain 18th – however have moved above Ipswich who have a game in hand. Here are the five things we learned from the game.
Ismaila Sarr has a huge part to play for Oliver Glasner
Since arriving in the summer, tipped to be the replacement for Michael Olise, Sarr has been largely disappointing. However, the Senegal international has flipped the script here.
Sarr scored and assisted for the Eagles in a man-of-the-match performance that reminded everyone why he was once a player linked with Liverpool.
His electric pace was simply unstoppable for Villa and more performances like this would surely turn the Crystal Palace season around.
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Justin Devenny is ready to be a regular fixture
When both Eberechi Eze and Eddie Nketiah were ruled out of action, we feared for Glasner and where he would find some attacking quality.
However, now two games in a row Devenny has grabbed his chance.
Against Villa was the real statement though with his well-taken goal and all-round solid outing by the Northern Irish international.
Maxence Lacroix is an elite defender
In central defence, one of the trio was much better than his peers – that being Maxence Lacroix.
The summer signing had an immense start to the game for Crystal Palace and ended up completing more defensive actions than any of his teammates.
Lacroix has established himself as one of the first names on the team sheet and performances like this will only continue to see his stock rise.
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Business must be done in January
Despite this result being positive considering it comes against a team who are in the Champions League, to lose from a leading position made one thing clear.
January must see the Eagles strengthen the squad options as Glasner has demanded. In the Premier League, a good starting 11 simply is not enough but options are needed to come from the bench.
Steve Parish needs to back Glasner in January otherwise disappointments like this will keep happening.
Premier League survival looks likely
While throwing away two points is disappointing, it can still be treated as a point gained for Crystal Palace as it pushes that point tally slightly higher.
However, the point is less impressive than the performance which showed how determined the Eagles squad was to succeed – a good omen for Glasner going forward.
This is not the performance of a team headed for relegation, and without poor substitutes like Jeffrey Schlupp, we would be celebrating three points here.
