Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi said he felt his side were hard done by in their 3-2 home loss to West Ham on New Year’s Day, but have to maintain the belief in themselves after a “difficult” fight back.
Marc Guehi said: “The overall performance as a team was good but in football it comes down to both boxes and we could’ve been better in our box defensively. They didn’t have many chances on goal and at the other end we created a few chances and could’ve scored but the decision [on the penalty] is what it is, but we just feel a bit hard done by. Hopefully we can put it right next game. I don’t want to say the dressing room was positive at half-time, but there was a feeling that we had to just stay resilient and go back into the game with that belief that we could get something from it. The second-half performance showed that with two goals late on. We would’ve loved to get the third one but it’s unfortunate. It shows a desire to want to get in the side, they’ve played well for us. We have to keep the belief, the second half performance is hopefully what is to come. If we can put the mistakes behind us, try to rectify tonight and push on.”
Palace manager Patrick Vieira had a similar view of the match, telling the media after the game that his side had deserved to get something from the game as he felt they were the better team across 90 minutes.
Patrick Vieira said: “It’s difficult because we played some good football and created a number of chances to win that game,” said the Frenchman. I’m really disappointed because I think we were the better team. There are some differences between the teams, they have been building the team for a couple of years now and this is a mature team, so I think their experience counted. A times we were a bit naive, and we were unlucky as well. We are learning the hard way. With more maturity and experience we will manage the game better.”
Palace now have a week to get themselves prepared for their next match – a big London derby against Millwall in the FA Cup third round – before they travel to the south coast to face Premier League rivals Brighton a week later.
