Crystal Palace slide continues as own goal hands Aston Villa victory

Crystal Palace’s slow drift into the Premier League relegation fight continued as Joachim Andersen’s own goal was enough to condemn them to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.

Denmark defender Andersen turned a Matty Cash cross into his own net after 27 minutes and there was little sign of a fightback from Patrick Vieira’s side even before six minutes of madness from Cheick Doucoure saw him dismissed for two yellow cards early in the second half.

Unai Emery’s first victory over Palace keeps a Villa side once with relegation worries of their own in touch with the European battle, but though only one place separates these two clubs in the table it is a very different picture for Vieira.

The Frenchman insisted this week he does not fear the prospect of a relegation battle but he surely should as his side’s winless 2023 continued, leaving them only six points clear of the bottom three.

Defeat made it nine league games without victory, and with Manchester City, high-flying Brighton and Arsenal up next, things could soon get worse.

The recent absence of Wilfried Zaha has only added to Palace’s shortcomings given their dismal 10 per cent win record without him since the start of last season.

It looked as though their talisman’s return from a hamstring injury could solve both problems as he had the ball in the net with less than five minutes gone.

But Zaha was fractionally offside as he raced on to Ebere Eze’s ball from the left before he rounded Emiliano Martinez to apply the finish, and the goal was ruled out after a lengthy VAR check.

Having survived that let off, Villa grew into the game. Ollie Watkins got slightly in John McGinn’s way as he stooped to meet Alex Moreno’s cross, flashing a header wide.

But McGinn then set up the