Six things we loved from Palace's historic win over Brighton

First-team

6 Apr 2025

An extraordinary, eventful match of football saw Crystal Palace make club history against Brighton & Hove Albion with a 2-1 win on Saturday afternoon – and here are just six aspects of the day we loved...

History, written

Saturday afternoon’s win marked a landmark moment for Palace: a first-ever top-flight league double over their great rivals Brighton.

Oliver Glasner had said in his pre-match press conference that the allure of possibly writing club history had formed part of his team talk to his players, stating: “When it's important for our fans, it means automatically that it's important for us.

“Joanne [Whittle, Head of PR and Media Relations] always briefs me very well, and I know [Palace] winning both league games hasn't been for about 90 years – the last time it was in the 1930s [the 1932/33 season].

“I told the players: ‘You can write a chapter in the Crystal Palace history books when you win the derby’. This is what it means.”

2 minute highlights: Crystal Palace 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

If any doubt remained what it meant, simply witness the full-time scenes at an exuberant Selhurst Park: Glasner animated on the touchline; Jean-Philippe Mateta and Maxence Lacroix leading the substitutes and staff streaming onto the pitch at full-time; Dean Henderson geeing up the Whitehorse Lane end; and players and staff rightly soaking up the adulation of Selhurst supporters.

It simply meant: history, written.

Records tumble

It wasn’t just a league double over Brighton that Palace had to play for on Saturday – it was also several other club records.

The dramatic circumstances of the win meant that Palace became the first team in Premier League history to win a home game having received two red cards.

And having scored against both Southampton and Brighton this week, Palace set a new club record for consecutive Premier League games they found the back of the net in: 12, a run stretching back to the 2-1 win over Southampton on 29th December.

The Eagles had previously struck 11 matches in a row between January and March 2019, but surpassed that streak with another clinical performance in front of goal.

And as for another record…

Warding them off

Now in his 13th season at the club, Joel Ward made his first Premier League appearance of the season in remarkable circumstances, helping the Eagles through 12 minutes of added time, with nine men, and continuing his incredible run of never having been on the losing side with Palace against Brighton.

The 35-year-old came onto the field in the 90th minute for the injured Lacroix and was immediately handed the captain’s armband by Marc Guéhi, before slotting into a makeshift backline which began to fall under siege.

Wave upon wave of Brighton pressure came – and wave upon wave was repelled, with Ward’s record against the Seagulls now reading: played 11, won six, drawn five, lost zero.

Mateta & Muñoz

We’ve written plenty of times in these pieces about how much we love Jean-Philippe Mateta – but we should’ve known that he’d get a goal today from the fact when it emerged, pre-match, that the masked maestro would, iconically, be wearing a long-sleeved shirt amidst sunny temperatures in SE25.

Since Glasner's first game in charge of Crystal Palace (24th February 2024), only Alexander Isak (26) and Erling Haaland (25) have scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League than JP (23).

As for Muñoz: a crucial second goal against Millwall, followed by a crucial second goal against Brighton, both at Selhurst, in the space of the month? An achievement for Palace folklore.

Smells like team spirit

If seeing out 12 additional minutes with nine men against one of the in-form teams in the Premier League this season – only two other sides had collected more Premier League points than Brighton’s 20 (level with Palace) in the calendar year of 2025 – then there were plenty of scenes to evidence it still further.

In addition to Guéhi selflessly handing Ward the armband, there were more incredible moments: when Eddie Nketiah was shown a second yellow card, Lacroix ran the length of the pitch to console his teammate in a show of incredible unity.

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Then there were numerous blocks, with the likes of Ben Chilwell, Will Hughes – and plenty of others – throwing themselves in the way of many a Brighton shot, and then there were Henderson’s heroics in goal, none greeted with a bigger roar than that last-gasp save from Yasin Ayari.

At full-time, Mateta and Lacroix began the celebrations early, sprinting on from the sidelines. They quickly realised that the game hadn't quite finished – but once Henderson cleared the ball one final time, the party could begin in earnest...

Stunning Selhurst

Just listen to the above, drink it in, and continue to savour the kind of days which don’t always come around so often in football.

Eight league games to go, two points off the top half of the table, and a date at Wembley set. Wherever we go from here, 2024/25, it’s already been quite the ride.

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