Crystal Palace has extended their unbeaten run to six games and edged out of the Premier League drop zone thanks to a last-gasp 2-1 win over 10-man Watford on Tuesday night.
Daryl Janmaat opened the scoring for the Hornets at Selhurst Park after just three minutes but went a man down after Tom Cleverley was shown a second yellow card on 87 minutes.
The Eagles then drew level through Bakary Sako on 89 minutes before dramatically snatching all three points, thanks to James McArthur’s strike in the second minute of injury time.
Watford were dominant from the off and took the lead early on as Richarlison took advantage of some slack defending by picking up a loose ball and whipping a cross towards the far post where Janmaat was on hand to head home.
The Hornets continued to push forward and weigh in with chances as Palace struggled to cope with the opposition’s wing-backs, although the hosts did threaten on the half-hour mark, only for Janmaat to head behind as Christian Benteke was on hand to drill home.
Palace began the second half brightly but soon found themselves under pressure as Watford sought to kill off the game, Richarlison forcing a smart save from Julian Speroni on 65 minutes.
As the game entered its latter stages, Roy Hodgson’s side had still not mustered a shot on target when Wilfried Zaha fired over the bar on 83 minutes.
The complexion of the game changed four minutes later, however, when Cleverley lunged into an opposition played and was sent off by referee Lee Mason for his second booking of the match.
With just one minute of normal time left, Zaha forced a save from Heurelho Gomes which rebounded into the path of Sako, who was also thwarted by the Brazilian goalkeeper before slamming the ball into the open net.
Just as it seemed like the points would be shared at Selhurst Park, another surge down the left from Zaha culminated in a low ball played into the middle where McArthur was on hand to tuck home into the bottom corner.
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