Crystal Palace

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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Some matches are sophisticated, exciting and some are boring, but now and again you get the odd one that is just bonkers.

I popped down to Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace welcomed Brighton. Robustly. It wasn't that dirty but it still ended with nine men playing against 10.

The referee had obviously watched Everton's James Tarkowski not being sent off against Liverpool and noticed the referee that night being roundly criticised by everyone, including his own bosses at the PGMOL for not reaching for his red card.

So the man in the middle this time was not taking any chances and the flood of yellows turned quickly into reds.

Oddly I did not blame the officials. It was a tough match to keep on track and there were a load of difficult, marginal calls to make. In the end, nine-man Palace came out winners. Brighton's vague hopes of reaching the Champions League spots melted away in the south London sunshine and the home support celebrated that fact more than any goal on the day.

The age-old British football tradition of enjoying your fiercest rival's failure as much as your own success was effortlessly maintained. The most heartening thing about the entire day was the atmosphere that crackled noisily throughout.

Bigger clubs now bemoan the hollow atmosphere at many of their Premier League games and I wonder if this is at least a part of the reason why the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford are above Manchester United and Tottenham in the league table.

Visitors from abroad always want to go to the big stadiums with the most famous names, but more and more often that is not where you will get the most authentic, loudest and most passionate matchday experience.

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George Booth
BBC Sport journalist

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner was an animated figure throughout - constantly moving in the technical area and never sitting down for long periods.

He did generally respect the white line, only leaving his technical area once in the first half, while in the final 10 minutes of the contest he was frequently interacting with the crowd in a bid to help his team over the line.

Fabian Hurzeler spent the majority of the first half outside his technical area, virtually inches away from the pitch, but was seated for most of the second half - despite the three red cards coming during this period.

When his side faced a defensive set-piece, assistant manager Jonas Scheuermann took control of the technical area, with Brighton's players often looking back to follow instructions.

The Brighton manager, with the help of his coaching staff, also interacted with fourth official Sam Allison throughout the game.

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Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner is tempted to leave the club this summer to take the top job at RB Leipzig. (Football Insider, external)

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Alex Pewter
Fan writer

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Crystal Palace had never lost a game against Brighton when Joel Ward had been on the pitch. So with 12 minutes of stoppage time remaining, and the team already down to nine players and protecting a single-goal lead, his late arrival as a substitute was perhaps a good omen that the win would go to the Eagles - against the perceived odds.

The rivalry with Brighton (note: not a derby), with its 1970s origins, may continue to baffle the outside footballing world but in this form it is not that complicated.

This modern era dates back to September 2011, with a 3-1 Palace away victory that christened Amex Stadium and has been sustained by the ascent of both clubs in the decade or so that has followed.

The embodiment of this era were the two respective academy players who started in that match - Wilfried Zaha and Lewis Dunk - one of whom remains at Brighton but is seemingly in the twilight of his Premier League career, certainly as a starter.

There is always the question of whether players genuinely care about these types of games, which are ultimately fan-led constructs. However, Palace have been fortunate in that there has been a consistent thread from the Dougie Freedman team to that of Oliver Glasner's team, with Joel Ward and Nathaniel Clyne even still with the playing squad.

Imagined or not, we can believe that this squad of players has carried on with the same spirit of seasons past. Indeed, this might be the last time Ward plays in the fixture, but it is clear that this iteration of Palace has managed to find leaders to carry this on into future seasons in his absence.

On the other side of the rivalry, beyond Dunk, it is difficult to see who will carry that torch into future encounters for Brighton and be synonymous with their team in the eyes of Palace fans, given the ever-changing faces in their squad.

However, if that continues to give Palace the advantage in future seasons then I doubt that us fans will spend too long pondering that question in great detail.

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We asked for your thoughts after Saturday's Premier League game between Crystal Palace and Brighton.

Here are some of your comments:

Palace fans

Andy: The Eagles clipping the Seagulls' wings this season! A great game. It's a shame we will lose Marc Guehi for the next couple of Premier League games but what a trooper Maxence Lacroix is!

Sam: What a dramatic derby! The purest form of digging in, getting your head down and defending with gritted teeth. An unbelievable climax with three early exits - I noticed the score was 2-1 on goals and red cards! An exhilarating game of football - and wonderful to have won it in the end.

Michael: When you can grind out a win like that, when the chips are down, it says a lot about the determination and will to win from the team. We saw that in particular when we lost two players and Brighton were sensing a win. Not to mention what it says about the manager, Oliver Glasner, who has given the team the belief that if they keep going, they can win.

Ben: Palace are riding high, although we do make it hard for ourselves at times! We have quite good strength in depth for once. Though, in my opinion, Daichi Kamada is not good enough. I know he did a couple of good things in this game but he is still not good enough for the Premier League, nor is Eddie Nketiah. The rest of the team is top quality.

Brighton fans

Clive: Three games, three losses. That defines the season and the manager's lack of tactical knowhow. The same excuses. Slow, ponderous and predictable.

Fran: After the last two defeats, you would think that we would be up for it against Palace but it seems we are having problems raising it, even against them! Really disappointing and I'm not sure what the problem is? The players, manager or system? Or all three! We really need to do it against Leicester next week, otherwise our season is over. We need to forget about Europe and just finish as high as we can.

David: Hopeless. No attacking ideas at all. We couldn't even score against nine men. Since losing on penalties in the FA Cup quarter-final, they seem to have lost interest.

John: A totally inexperienced manager. Bundesliga 2 is not good enough for the Premier League. The tactics, motivation, substitutes and man-management is shocking.

Arsenal and Liverpool are set to be among the main teams trying to sign Crystal Palace and England midfielder Eberechi Eze, 26, this summer. (Caughtoffside), external

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Gary Lineker presents highlights and analysis from Saturday's five Premier League fixtures.

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Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Crystal Palace 2-1 Brighton

• Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest

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Crystal Palace became the first team in Premier League history to win a home game after receiving two red cards.

The Eagles completed a league double against Brighton for the first time since 1932-33 and for the first time ever in the top-flight.

Since Oliver Glasner's first Premier League game in charge of Crystal Palace, only Alexander Isak (26) and Erling Haaland (25) have scored more non-penalty goals in the competition than Jean-Philippe Mateta (23).

Jean-Phillippe Mateta (2) and Eberechi Eze (10) have assisted each other to score 12 goals in the Premier League, the most of any Crystal Palace duo in the competition.

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Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has been speaking about his side's winning performance: "It is a huge win for us. This win is for our fans because know how important it is for the fans. This derby had everything you love about football. It's not good for a manager, I'm pretty exhausted but it feels good!

"There were 12 minutes of additional time, then you see 103 minutes and you think: 'Come on, how long do we play?' Sometimes we are training nine players against 10 players and eight players against 10 players.

"We fought and brought it home."

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Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson has been speaking to Premier League Productions about the win: "It was phenomenal. The lads were in the trenches at the end.

"Going down to nine men, we had to dig deep and build relationships. No one knew what positions they were playing, but they were throwing bodies in the way of shots.

"I'm speechless, it is fantastic. This fixture is massive for the fans and it means the same to us. We are delighted."

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

What did you make of Crystal Palace's performance?

What did you think of Brighton's display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

Five matches make up Saturday's Premier League action and BBC Sport will bring you every kick.

• Everton v Arsenal (12:30)

• Crystal Palace v Brighton

• Ipswich v Wolves

• West Ham v Bournemouth

• Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest (17:30)

All kick-off times 15:00 BST unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

There are a few derby games this weekend and this one - the M23 derby - is one of my favourites.

Both of these teams surprised me a bit last time out, and not in a good way.

Crystal Palace have been in great form but only drew with Southampton and I backed Brighton to beat Aston Villa, who absolutely walloped them in the end.

I promise I am not going to go for a draw with every prediction I make this week but the past five meetings between these two at Selhurst Park have ended 1-1, so that scoreline seems like a decent shout this time too.

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Jay Crame
Fan writer

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Few would have believed quite how the season would pan out after a poor start to the campaign. That is now a distant memory other than the thought of how much better it could have been but for that slow start.

Forget that. This is where we are.

An FA Cup semi-final to look forward to and well positioned for an interesting run to the end of the season which could yet yield a top-10 finish.

The dream for all Palace fans is to win a trophy. The Zenith Data Systems victory is a distance memory, which is laughable to most fans, but those that were around in those heady early 1990s will remember it well.

That was not long after the FA Cup final disappointment of 1990, and we have had one more since then, so is it third time lucky?

Football is all about dreaming but there is no getting carried away. We know it will be a difficult summer to hold on to our star players and the manager, so enjoy the ride while we can in case the worst does happen (which often does to teams like Palace!).

Failing a trophy, Palace fans would love a European adventure, no matter how it happened or where it would take us.

It has been a long wait but the time is now with such an influential manager in charge of the club and making us look up the table rather than down.

Oliver Glasner masterminded an excellent end to last season. If he can encourage his players to produce anything similar, we are looking at a fun couple of months.

You have to dream, before your dreams come true, and Glasner has made us dreamers again.

Find more from Jay Crame at The Eagles Beak, external

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Brighton (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• On if Chris Richards will feature at the weekend: "No, unfortunately. It was very close. He was outside on the pitch today for a short session but he's not 100%. If it was the last game of the season he would have started, but we can't take the risk when you see our schedule. We took the decision not to take the risk."

• On speculation linking him to the vacant manager's role at Bundesliga side RB Leipzig: "I'm very happy, but I'm not happy with all the stories. I don't read all these stories, but my mum messaged me and she said: 'I don't know. I have to read so much. I don't know where to start and where to end, I can't sleep any more'. I said: 'Come on, you are in your 70s, and it's not worth reading all this stuff.' So nothing to tell from my side. The only guy I was talking to in the last week was [Palace chairman] Steve Parish. No-one else."

• On the midweek draw with Southampton: "Sometimes you maybe need this experience to learn from it. I'm pretty sure the players will be ready for a great derby game at Selhurst."

• On fixture rearrangements: "It's great, we play two teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League so it feels like we are also in the quarter-finals. We face these teams within three days, and we will give our best in both games."

• On if he believes the Arsenal game is too close to their FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa: "There was obviously no other date possible for the Arsenal game. It was a very busy January and February, a very relaxed March and we look forward to a busy April and May. We are playing in two competitions which is what we wanted."

Listen to BBC Radio 5 Live commentary of Crystal Palace v Brighton at 15:00 on Saturday

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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The schedule for the FA Cup semi-finals has been confirmed.

Saturday, 26 April

Crystal Palace v Aston Villa, 17:15 BST, BBC One

Sunday, 27 April

Nottingham Forest v Manchester City, 16:30 BST

Both ties will take place at Wembley Stadium.