Crystal Palace and Brighton play out bore draw

Crystal Palace and Brighton played out a forgettable 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park to remain a point apart in mid-table in the Premier League.

There was little to separate the teams in terms of performance, with the visitors shading the possession statistics while Palace had more shots but fewer on target.

This was, in truth, the extent of the difference between them, with neither side deserving more than what they left with.

If anyone deserved more it was the supporters, home and away, who maintained a ferocious atmosphere throughout in south London despite a paucity of anything happening on the pitch to justify it.

Home fans in particular drew enormous glee from a yellow card shown to Brighton’s Georginio Rutter for diving inside the box in the second half after VAR overturned an initial penalty decision.

Palace were without defender Marc Guehi, with Oliver Glasner confirming before kick-off he had suffered a bruised bone in his foot towards the end of Thursday’s Conference League win and would miss the upcoming England internationals.

For Fabian Hurzeler it was a rare case of an unchanged line-up, the first time this season the Brighton boss had stuck with his hand.

Virtually all of the first-half action came in the opening 10 minutes. Maxence Lacroix almost turned Mats Wieffer’s cross into his own net with a wild swing at a clearance, then Brighton’s Diego Gomez brought a good stop out of Dean Henderson.

The Palace goalkeeper’s heroics were bettered moments later when his opposite number Bart Verbruggen flew across goal to deny Ismaila Sarr with a fine one-handed save.

That was it until the final minute of the half when Brighton should have gone ahead. Adam Wharton dawdled on the ball in midfield and was dispossessed by