Dilan Markanday and Harry Leonard scored their first league goals for Blackburn to give them a hard-fought 2-1 win over West Brom in a pulsating season opener.
On their first league starts for the club, the duo did the damage in a devastating three-minute spell in the first half as Markanday slotted home from a narrow angle and within seconds of the kick-off, academy graduate Leonard hammered in his first senior goal.
The Baggies responded in the second half through Matt Phillips’ superb curling effort five minutes after the restart but they could not force an equaliser against a Rovers side that finished the game strongly.
Their frustration was summed up by Carlos Corberan being sent to the stands late in the second half.
Phillips stung the palms of Aynsley Pears in the 19th minute as the Baggies settled quickest, but were shell-shocked by a quickfire double as Blackburn went ahead a minute later when Markanday dispossessed Conor Townsend, and though Leonard could not get a shot away, Lewis Travis threaded a first-time pass to Markanday on the right and he slotted into the far corner.
Straight from kick-off, Sammie Szmodics cut out a pass and fed Leonard on the right and his rasping low drive flew in at Alex Palmer’s near post in the 22nd minute.
A neat one-touch move in the 34th minute almost gave Rovers a third but Tyrhys Dolan’s curling shot was parried away by Palmer.
Brandon Thomas-Asante almost found the far corner four minutes later when firing goalwards from the right but Pears got down well to push behind.
West Brom came out with real purpose and Thomas-Asante’s cut-back found Jayson Molumby in the area and his shot looked destined for the top corner but for a superb Joe Rankin-Costello block.
The visitors did get on the scoresheet in the 50th minute, though, as Phillips robbed Markanday and exchanged passes with Jed Wallace before curling beautifully into the right corner from 25 yards.
Thomas-Asante was wreaking havoc down the right and another teasing cross found Molumby in the 58th minute but he could not get the ball out of his feet and Rankin-Costello made a brilliant goal-saving tackle.
Rovers should have wrapped the points up 10 minutes later, though, when they cut the visitors open and Travis fed Leonard with Palmer to beat but he directed his shot past the far post.
A sensational Adam Wharton pass gave the teenager another chance minutes later but he once again fired his effort past the post.
The frustration of the afternoon got the better of Baggies boss Corberan who was dismissed for dissent, having already been booked earlier in the second half, and Darnell Furlong’s 89th-minute sensational block from Hayden Carter kept the margin of defeat to one.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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