Ismail Sarr (£6.3m) scored the only goal as Crystal Palace secured a 1-0 win over rivals Brighton and Hove Albion.
Here are our scout notes from Amex Stadium.
BEACH LARSEN DEBUT
Following his £48million move from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.1m) made his debut for Palace on Sunday.
As the centerpiece in Oliver Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 formation, the Norwegian performed quite well.
He produced three shots, all taken inside the penalty area, and only conceded a debut goal from Bart Verbruggen (£4.5 million), which is his far-reaching late effort of Daniel Munoz‘s (£5.8 million) cut.
“I had cramps all over with that last finish! It was bad luck, a good save from the goalkeeper. I think you can see today that I already had a few chances, and the last one almost went in. The playing style here suits me. It’s intense, high pressure, winning the ball high on the pitch. We had a few chances today, and the more we train together, the more we play together, they will know my qualities and my strengths. I felt like I had a good game today, but there is a lot of improvement too, but it’s a very good start to my journey here. I got a lot of food today and that will continue in the future, so I’m looking forward to it.” – Jorgen Strand Larsen
“He will keep getting better. I told him after the match in three to four weeks that he knows where to fit. He is not used to the way we play. His commitment and presence. He defended the set well and was a constant threat and that is very positive.” – Oliver Glasner on Jorgen Strand Larsen
Of Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m) from Gameweek 26, as he waits to find out whether he needs knee surgery or can muddle through until the end of the season, Strand Larsen looks set to start again against Burnley.
SARR AGAIN
But it was another debutant, Evann Guessand (£6.2m), which immediately helped unlock Brighton’s defence.
Shortly after coming on, the Ivory Coast international picked up Sarr, who lifted the ball over Verbruggen with Palace’s first shot on target.
It is now back-to-back goals for Sarr, who, after missing out on an earlier chance, now ranks seventh among all midfielders in expected goals (xG) despite having played just 15 games.
Above: Midfielders sorted by expected goals (xG) in 2025/26
Palace face three of the current bottom five at Selhurst Park over the next five Gameweeks, but are likely to draw a blank in Gameweek 31, which you can read more about here.
THE PALACE OF OLD?
“I think we defended very well. This was always our basis, I have mentioned it so many times.” – Oliver Glasner
Palace looked back to their physical, defensive best at the Amex as they limited Brighton to just seven shots and 0.74 xG.
Fabian Hurzeler changed formation and threw at players like Yankuba Minteh (£5.7 million) and Danny Welbeck (£6.2m) in an attempt to equalise, but abandoned Charalampos Kostoulas‘ (£4.8m) effort in the second half, there was very little else.
Maxence Lacroix (£5.1 million) and Jefferson Lerma (£4.9m) excelled in the back three and collected defensive contribution points (DefCon), along with Palace’s other centre-back, Chris Richards (£4.6 million), leaving only one short.
Munoz also finished at nine DefCons, creating that late chance for Strand Larsen, so he wasn’t far from a clearance even if he was lucky to avoid a second booking.
It is notable that the Colombian full-back scored 28 points against his next two opponents (Burnley and Wolves) earlier in the season.
VAN HECKE INJURY LATEST
Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5m) missed Sunday for Brighton with a “minor” hamstring problem.
Hurzeler hopes to have the Dutch central defender back in Gameweek 26.
When asked what the chances are of him playing against Aston Villa on Wednesday, the German replied: “I hope so, yes.”
In other news, Harry Howel (£4.5m) made his full Premier League debut playing on the right of Brighton’s front three, with Kostoulas preferred to Welbeck up top.
BRIGHTON’S BAD FORM
But given Brighton’s lack of form, this was unsurprisingly a performance lacking in quality and creativity.
The Seagulls have now won just one of their last 12 Premier League matches, with Hurzeler under increasing pressure.
“We made bad decisions when we had to concede and then we looked quite vulnerable. We didn’t show the right reactions, which was disappointing. It wasn’t good enough today. We are all disappointed. The loss of energy, the loss of intensity, I wasn’t happy because it just wasn’t good enough.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Brighton also have some tough fixtures on their schedule, with meetings against Aston Villa (a), Brentford (a), Nottingham Forest (h), Arsenal (h), Sunderland (a) and Liverpool (h) set for the end of March.
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