Crystal Palace 1-0 Wolves: Eberechi Eze powers in winner to pile pressure on Nuno Espirito Santo

Eberechi Eze doesn’t really do simple goals and his third special strike of the season earned Crystal Palace three crucial points against Wolves.

After an inch-perfect free-kick against Leeds and solo wonder goal against Sheffield United, Eze produced something else from his repertoire to net at Selhurst Park once again.

This time it was a clever first touch and shift of weight to send his opponent the one way while he went the other and thumping finish to clinch a narrow but precious victory for Palace. 

Crystal Palace edged Wolves on Saturday thanks to an Eberechi Eze strike at Selhurst Park 

The 22-year-old dropped a smart feint before powerfully beating Wolves keeper Rui Patricio 

Wolves still look no closer to turning their season around, slipping to 14th behind Palace

It was for inspired moments such as that that Palace splashed out £19.5m to sign Eze, one of the Championship’s standout performers last season, from QPR.

There was little between these teams in the table – only goal difference separated them at kick off – and on the pitch with few chances created.

But the England’s under-21 attacker produced the crucial piece of quality in a game of few chances that turned one point into three and just a second league win in 10 for Palace.

Manager Roy Hodgson said: ‘[Eberechi Eze] is a good player and doing very well. I don’t think he will be a tap-in man. 

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are falling well short of pre-season expectations so far this term 

‘The goals he gets will be up there for goals of the month. He scores very good goals. The important thing is the goals he has got is a very good return for a midfield player.’

Thanks to Eze, Palace swapped places with Wolves, climbing up one position to go 13th.

Hodgson added: ‘It was a big win no doubt about at. We’ve been stuck close to 23 points for some time so it was good to move away from that total.’

In contrast to Hodgson’s satisfaction, Nuno Espirito Santo was downbeat after seeing his sides winless run extend to eight games. 

Both sides lacked conviction in the first-half with both attacks missing the final quality touch

He said: ‘It was not the best performance. We lack creativity, passes that break lines of palace. We didn’t do it today.

‘A lot of things are missing. Better performances, better decisions, what is our identity. Everything must be faster. There were a lot of sideways passes. We need to take risks. A lot of things are missing.

‘We have a big challenge. We have to improve and we have to improve fast.’

Nuno’s concerned sentiments were echoed by his straight-talking captain Conor Coady who added: ‘We’re in a really bad place and we need to put it right as soon as possible.

It’s been a tough season for us but it’s only us that can put it right. It’s important we look at it and improve.

Willian Jose made his first start since joining Wolves on-loan but couldn’t make the difference

‘We’ve got fantastic players but something’s going wrong and we need to work out what that is and solve it.’ 

Nuno stuck with the back three he returned to in the midweek goalless draw at Chelsea in midweek though he accepted that while that might have tightened them up defensively it has also made it tougher for them to get bodies forward and attack.

That played out in the first half when they failed to get a shot on target despite some nice touches in attack from new boy Willian Jose, making his first start since his loan move from Real Sociedad.

Palace were not much better in attack themselves though at least threatened on a couple of occasions through Nathaniel Clyne and Michy Batshuayi.

Eze is fast adapting to the Premier League and beginning to show-off his talent consistently 

Better opportunities arrived after the break. Jose extended Vicente Guaita with a half-volley before Eze’s match-winner arrived.

Meanwhile Hodgson reverted to his more familiar setup of a 4-4-2 with Eze out wide and Wilfried Zaha up front.

From that position, Eze drifted inside to fire Palace in front. They worked the ball from the left hand side in their own half to the right hand side but in Wolves territory where Clyne cut the ball back to Jordan Ayew.

He in turn picked out Eze with a ball across the area and the talented attacker took one touch to wrong foot Dendoncker and a second to smash the ball past Rui Patricio.

Wilfred Zaha might have put Palace clear in the second-half, cannoning a shot off the bar 

Nuno responded by introducing Adama Traore off the bench, who won the FA Cup third round tie between these sides three weeks ago.

But Palace then went close to a second as one minute Hodgson was cursing a needlessly conceded corner and the next he was almost celebrating a clinching goal.

Palace cleared the set-piece sparking a two-man counter attack of Batshuayi and Zaha, who saw his thumping effort bounce down and away off the bar.

While Palace’s lead remained slender Wolves still had hope, a point underlined when only a brilliant Guaita reaction save prevented Jose levelling for the visitors.

And Palace held on.