Odsonne Edouard leads Palace to comfortable win over Norwich

Crystal Palace swept away rock-bottom Norwich 3-0 at Selhurst Park to end the year with an emphatic win.

Palace, beaten 3-0 in their last outing by Tottenham, were again without manager Patrick Viera in the dugout while Wilfred Zaha and Conor Gallagher were also unavailable.

Dean Smith was desperate to get his Norwich side back on track after four straight defeats and the visitors started the game brightly. But as seems typical with the Canaries at the moment, all their hard work was quickly undone with some poor decision making.

On this occasion it was Kenny McLean who caught Will Hughes in the box after the Palace midfielder produced a neat turn to win a penalty after just seven minutes. Up stepped Odsonne Edouard who made no mistake from the spot and slotted home to break the deadlock.

From then on it became one way traffic as Edouard was involved in the next two goals. First the striker fizzed in a cross which was tucked away by Jean-Philippe Mateta. For the second goal the Frenchman danced his way into the box before teeing up Jeffrey Schlupp who fired his shot past Angus Gunn to make it 3-0.

The second half saw Norwich attempt to be more adventurous, but as the game wore on it became increasingly apparent how much quality they lacked in the final third, each time they surged forward they failed to make the right passing choice.

For Palace it was a case of keeping a clean sheet and adding to their lead when possible. Schlupp came closest to making it 4-0 with a low driving effort from the edge of the box which was stopped by the feet of Gunn.

Next up for the Eagles is a London derby with West Ham, while Norwich journey to the King Power Stadium to take on Leicester.

The scoring wait goes on for Norwich: It's now a staggering seven-and-half hours since Norwich last found the back of the net which leaves them rooted to the base of the Premier League with only 10 points to their name. In fact the Canaries have scored only eight times in 19 matches this season which, make no mistake about it, is relegation form. Smith needs to find a solution to this issue fast if he's to turn this around, whether he needs to mix up his formation or dip into into the January transfer market, one thing is for sure they will be heading straight back down to the Championship if something doesn't change.

Odsonne Edouard (Crystal Palace) The overall performance from this much-changed Palace side was exceptional, given the fact they had to prepare for this game without their manager and were missing key players. There were a number of standout players, but Edouard's impact was decisive in the outcome of this game. His composure to tuck home the opener from the penalty spot set the tone of the game, from then on he had a hand in next two goals, which really killed off the game after just 45 minutes. His arrival at the club in the summer was met with much anticipation and with more performances like this, then the hype around him will be more than justified.

Palace: Guaita 6, Ward 6, Andersen 6, Guéhi 6, Mitchell 6, Kouyaté 6, Schlupp 7, Hughes 8, Mateta 7, Ayew 7, Edouard 9

Subs: Tomkins N/A, Benteke 5, Milivojevic N/A

Norwich: Gunn 6, Byram 6, Gibson 5, Sørensen 5, Giannoulis 4, Gilmour 5, Lees-Melou 6, McLean 5, Tzolis 4, Placheta 6, Idah 5

Subs: Sargent N/A, Williams 5, Rowe 6

7’ - PENALTY FOR PALACE! Hughes produces a neat Cruyff turn in the box and is caught by McLean. Edouard steps up to take it

8’ - GOAL! PALACE 1-0 NORWICH (Edouard) - Cool as you like! Edouard slots it into the side of the net to give the hosts the lead after a shaky start

38' - GOAL! PALACE 2-0 NORWICH (Mateta) - It's 2-0 to the hosts as they pull away now just before the break. Edouard goes from scorer to provider as he fizzes in a cross which is tucked away by Mateta

42' - GOAL! PALACE 3-0 NORWICH (Schlupp) - It's gone from bad to worse for the visitors as Schlupp fired the ball home tight angle. In the build up to the goal Edouard was involved yet again. He's been influential today

58' - IT'S ALMOST 4-0- Schlupp reacts quickly to a rebound off the free kick and shoots from the edge of the box, but Gunn does well to stop it with his feet