‘Derail our season’ – West Brom man makes admission after 5-1 loss v Crystal Palace

Mon 7 December 2020 15:00, UK

West Brom defender Semi Ajayi said that the Baggies cannot let Sunday’s 5-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at The Hawthorns “derail” their season.

The match was poised at 1-1 when Matheus Pereira was sent off but got worse rapidly for Slaven Bilic’s side in the second half, with Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha both scoring braces.

The result leaves the Baggies with six points from their first 11 matches of the season and 19th in the Premier League table.

Speaking after the game, Ajayi said that while the match was even before the red card, they were not good enough in the second period.

“I think it was a very even game before the red card,” he said (via West Brom’s official website).

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“If anything I thought we were edging it. Going down to ten men changed things massively, but I don’t think it should’ve had as much of an effect on our performance as it did.

“We need to put this result behind us because there’s a lot more to play for this season. We can’t let a result like this derail our season. We know we weren’t good enough. We will work hard to improve and hopefully we will be a lot stronger next week.”

West Brom

Sunday was one of the Baggies worst days under Bilic and a dramatic crash back down to earth after their win against Sheffield United last weekend.

Crystal Palace only had one big chance in the first half and actually generated 1.81 expected goals across the 90 minutes (via InfoGol), but some of West Brom’s defending in the second half was not good enough and they made things to easy for the opposition.

Ajayi himself was guilty on both of Benteke’s goal, while Branislav Ivanovic simply looks past it at this level.

The only bright spot was Conor Gallagher’s goal and while Pereira’s red card was a strange decision, it was impetuous behaviour from the Brazilian.

According to InfoGol, Karlan Grant had the best chance of the match for the Baggies on 43 minutes, but the former Huddersfield Town man has struggled ever since his arrival and could not convert.

In other West Brom news, Baggies star is suddenly the odd one out under Bilic