Crystal Palace 4 Hull City 0
Crystal Palace secured Premier League survival with a 4-0 victory over Hull City, which sent Marco Silva’s side down to the Championship.
The visitors to Selhurst Park required all three points on Sunday to keep their hopes of avoiding the drop alive, but goals from Wilfried Zaha, Christian Benteke, Luka Milivojevic and Patrick van Aanholt condemned Hull to relegation.
Silva has earned plenty of admirers for the job he has done since being appointed in January, but a lack of quality ultimately put paid to his team’s chances of remaining in the top flight.
“Today we came here to play one final and we started in a bad way,” Silva, who has picked up 21 points from his 17 games in charge, said in his post-match news conference.
“It gave Palace what they wanted for the match. They knew what was in it for them. We tried but conceded again and it finished the game. We tried to make changes at half-time for a small reaction.”
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It may have taken his opposite number longer than expected to get his ideas across at Selhurst Park, but Sam Allardyce has once again succeeded in avoiding relegation.
And despite having reiterated the importance of his players “respecting the point” before Sunday’s match, the former England boss was delighted with the comprehensive nature of Palace’s victory.
“It was a great effort from the players today,” Allardyce told Sky Sports.
“Tactically we set out to nullify Hull and expose them where we thought they were weak, which is when they held a high line and put a quality ball in behind. Obviously that got us off to a great start with the first goal.
“It was a perfect performance from the players today, 4-0, a clean sheet and it’s terrific for everybody that’s taken part since I’ve been here — not just the squad but everyone behind the scenes and the fans in particularly in the end who have been behind us.”
For Hull, the unwelcome task of planning for life in the Championship awaits. Whether that will involve Silva, who the visiting supporters have repeatedly implored to stay, remains to be seen.
“Now is not the moment to talk about this situation,” he said when asked if he would be sticking around.
“I respect too much the club and these fans, who have been amazing since I came here. It’s the moment to speak to the chairman and the board. The club needs to understand what they need to do differently in the future, and we’ll do that next.
“I will talk to the board and the chairman first, talking inside the walls of the club. Not for you. For me, it’s easy what the club needs to do differently. We started to lose in pre-season when we were making our preparation.
“We tried to do many things in January, but it’s not good to be signing six or seven players in January, and losing two. You should be doing that in June. You need to prepare better.”
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