Aston Villa caused Crystal Palace's first home defeat of the season at Crystal Palace Stadium, with Aston Villa winning 2-1 at Selhurst Park and winning two for new manager Steven Gerrard. Matt Target scored first in the away team's corner kick, and then John McGinn sealed the victory with a beautiful goal. Mark Geisser did pull back a goal for Crystal Palace in stoppage time, but the goal was also too late.
Although Wilfrid Zaha had a bright start in the 11th minute, he saw the goal clearly, but the shot was deflected and Crystal Palace struggled to produce a noticeable offensive effect throughout the attack. When the field was too wide, they were determined to hit the middle and it frustrating them that a well-trained team from Villa struggled to clog in the middle of the pitch.
Crystal Palace didn't fare well on set-pieces, with some warning signs throughout the first half. Set-pieces were also the source of breakthrough goals, with former Hawks center-backs James Tomkins and Gay being forced by space-dominant figure Tyrone Mins to allow Target to freely hit the ball into the far corner of the goal behind them.
The home side regained their energy after half-time, although Ashley Young's free-kick hit the top of the crossbar, which nearly doubled Villa's lead early. Palermo remained sloppy in midfield, but their improved attack was not surprising, coinciding with zaha and Connor Gallach's higher possession scores, who nearly forced a oolong ball with a devilish cross as they made a mistake in Villa's penalty area.
Despite Crystal Palace controlling more balls, Villa looked relatively comfortable and didn't hit the target for the first time until the 80th minute. When substitute Douglas Luiz was shown a red card directly for colliding with Sherchau Coyat, but replays showed that he did not make dangerous contacts and the red card was revoked as yellow when VAR stepped in. With the clever combination of substitutes Anwar Gazi and Emiliano Buendia on the left, McGinn scored Villa's second goal from the edge of the penalty area, thus ensuring the outcome of the game.