Pino stunner pushes Palace past Wolves into top four
Crystal Palace surged up to fourth on the Premier League table as Rob Edwards's first game in charge of struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers ended in a 2-0 defeat.
Two goals in six second-half minutes from Daniel Munoz and Yeremy Pino did the damage for Palace, which squandered multiple chances prior to edging ahead at Molineux.
Jean-Philippe Mateta could not believe it when he shot wide of the right post after being played through on goal by Pino, while Daichi Kamada was denied by for Palace keeper Sam Johnstone.
Wolves had opportunities of their own to take the lead, with Ladislav Krejci unable to convert the rebound from Joao Gomes's deflected free-kick, which was just about kept out by Eagles keeper Dean Henderson.
But the deadlock was broken in the 63rd minute when Munoz scored into an empty net after Adam Wharton's initial strike was blocked by team-mate Maxence Lacroix.
Pino quickly doubled Palace's lead, bending the ball around Johnstone and in off the crossbar from outside the box after Wolves had lost the ball while playing out from the back.
Jhon Arias and David Moller Wolfe both failed to get on the scoresheet for the hosts, with the Eagles holding on to their sheet with resilient defending.
Wolves, meanwhile, are the first team since Newcastle in 2021-22 (14 games) to fail to win any of their opening 12 Premier League matches of a season, while their two points from 12 games so far are the third-fewest in top-flight history after 12 games, behind Manchester United in 1930-31 (0) and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (one).
Wharton insisted that Palace will not get ahead of itself after reaching new dizzying heights in the league.
“It's good. It just shows how tight the league is, we can't get ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“There's a long way to go, and if we lost today we'd probably be 16th. There's no need to get ahead of ourselves. We'll just keep working and going game by game.
“We started well, which was a positive. We got into good positions. The message at half-time was to keep doing the same things.
“They were tough to beat. They got in their shape and were compact. We got there in the end.”
Edwards’s admitted his first game in charge did not end in the way he wanted, but that did not surprise him.
“It's not going to be done in a week. We knew it was never just going to be a click of your fingers and that's it,” he said.
“There's probably quite a lot there that has been the story of our season so far, fairly tight, maybe a little bit of a lack of confidence and belief, but not much in the game, and then you get punished.
“We all want a magic wand, none of us have got it, so the only way we're going to turn things around is by sticking together and working really hard.”
Palace has 20 points from 12 Premier League games this season from five wins and five draws, its best start to a league season since 2012-2013 in the EFL Championship and its best in the top-flight since 1991-1992.
It has also lost just two of its past 18 league matches, winning seven and drawing nine, and has kept three league clean sheets in a row for the first time since October 2023.
