Burnley 2 Crystal Palace 3
Alan Pardew seems to be getting the handle of his new management role, back at his old stamping ground of Crystal Palace, with three wins in close succession now behind him. The former Eagles' player who replaced Neil Warnock in the top seat at the London club a few weeks back, seems to have found a way to rally the side and get the supporters behind him, something that the plain-talking Warnock could never truly claim.
He needed all his powers of motivation to pull this one out of the fire though, as they recovered from a slow start to take the points at Turf Moor.
The home side blasted out of the blocks in the first 15 minutes, in a manner reminiscent of their opening spell in the midweek FA Cup match away to Spurs. Ben Mee advanced from the back for a corner on 12 minutes with a back-post header to put them in front, which became two as the in-form Danny Ings was again on target for his seventh of the season (and third in as many matches) following a pass from Scott Arfield.
Fully aware of what had happened at Spurs, where they surrendered a two goal start to ultimately lose 4-2, the memory banks would have no doubt been prodded when Dwight Gayle pulled one back before the half-hour mark from Wilfried Zaha's cross. If they had been then they failed to register the fact, as an unlikely comeback became reality shortly after the break as Jason Puncheon brought the sides level with a crisp strike from 25 yards. Worse was to come for Burnley, as Gayle claimed his second of the afternoon and tenth in all of a productive season so far (for him at least) on 87 minutes. After neatly controlling Puncheon's cross, he fired his subsequent shot past the despairing Tom Heaton in goal.