Crystal Palace have achieved Patrick Vieira’s hidden target before World Cup break

Crystal Palace recorded their first away of the season at the London stadium, ending their disastrous away form in the league. The Eagles had been without a win on the road and there were concerns that their campaign would be a pale shadow of Vieira’s first year in south London.

Michael Olise, the young player signed from Reading a season ago with high expectations was the man who sealed the win with practically the last kick of the game in dramatic fashion to send his often hard to please manage into wild celebrations at full time.

Vieira had told the team he needed an away win before the international break for the World Cup as the only one he could count on was the Carabao Cup win at Oxford earlier in the season. So getting the win at West Ham will be a relief to the entire coaching staff who were beginning to worry about the teams form on the road, especially after the performance against Everton and Leicester.

The other target is to go into the international break in the top half of the table and as at this week the team sits in ninth on the league table, reward for their hard work and the strong mentality that has seen them come from behind to win four of the five games that have catapulted them to the top half of the league standing.

Eberechi Eze who has been impressing England manager Gareth Southgate was again in fine form and played a role in Wilfried’s Zaha’s first goal against West Ham in nine attempts, stealing the ball off Thilo Kehrer before releasing his star player. Gareth Southgate will name his team on Thursday and everyone at Palace will be holding their breath as they hope Eze will join the likes of Jeffrey Schlupp, Jordan Ayew and Joachim Andersen on the plane to Qatar.

There were concerns at the beginning that this would be a long season but wins against Southampton and West Ham has reminded everyone at Palace that the team’s ceiling is high and this season could yet be equally exciting if not even more than last season.