Wilfred Zaha again underlined his importance to Crystal Palace as they took advantage of the controversial dismissal of Matheus Pereira to claim their first points in three games with a rout at West Brom.
Forward Zaha had missed Palace’s previous two matches – both of which ended in defeat – after testing positive for Covid-19 but quickly found his feet again at The Hawthorns with a typically lively attacking display that included two goals and an assist.
It was from his low cross that Darnell Furlong diverted the ball into his own net to give the visitors the lead and his whipped finish into the far corner that restored the advantage after Conor Gallagher’s low, driven equaliser.
Between these two Zaha contributions, though, came the incident that completely altered the complexion of the game – Pereira’s red card.
It seemed unclear, even after multiple replays, whether the Baggies forward intended his boot to make contact with Patrick van Aanholt’s midriff while on the ground, but referee Paul Tierney had no doubt after viewing the incident on the pitch-side monitor.
Prior to that, Albion had been the better side with momentum behind them after Gallagher’s leveller, which came shortly after Furlong had gone close to making amends for his own goal with a header that came back off the bar.
But holding out for almost an hour with 10 men proved impossible, and Zaha sparked a Palace goal-fest.
Christian Benteke headed the first of his two goals of the afternoon from a Van Aanholt cross just four minutes after his strike-partner’s fine finish.
Zaha was on hand again to tap in from close range to make it 4-1 following a driving run into the box from Eberechi Eze before Benteke added the icing with a lovely finish on the turn.
It is the first time Palace have scored five away from home in a top-flight game and lifts them to 11th in the table, three points off the top four.
West Brom remain in the bottom three.
Roy Hodgson claimed before the season started that this was the strongest squad he has had at his disposal during his time at Crystal Palace.
But Zaha remains the key man.
You need only look at their record without him in Premier League games – just two wins from their past 17.
They were limp and unthreatening in their recent defeats by Burnley and Newcastle as their talismanic forward self-isolated, but were immediately reinvigorated here by his presence.
He inevitably benefited from the extra space afforded him following Pereira’s red card, but even before that he was an uncontainable menace to the Baggies, forcing Darnell into his costly evasive action as he tried to clear his dangerous early cross.
He has now scored or assisted 10 of Palace’s 16 goals this season. No wonder Hodgson opted to take him off with 10 minutes remaining and the game won.
That left Benteke to claim the limelight with a second goal, meaning in this one game alone he has matched his scoring tally for last season and doubled that of the season before.
It was a tough afternoon for Slaven Bilic’s side, who have now conceded a league-high 23 goals this season.
Bilic can take some heart from the way his side played with 11 men, but will be worried by the manner in which they utterly capitulated with 10.