Jordan Ayew is quickly becoming Crystal Palace’s go-to man when they need a little spark to claim a result.
Having scored the only goal in the 1-0 victory over rivals Brighton last weekend, the Ghanaian striker was given a hero's welcome here at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon, before going on to perform the same trick again with his first-half goal sealing all three points against Watford.
Palace have been short on goals all season, but especially in the first half. Ayew’s strike, a display of quick feet and smart finishing under pressure, was just Palace’s seventh in the opening 45 minutes all season.
It was his eighth Premier League goal of the campaign - the most he has managed in any top flight season - and it means he has now scored more than double that of anyone else in Roy Hodgson’s squad.
The former Swansea man – whose loan move last season was made permanent for a fee of £2.5million last summer – has been shifted out wide to accommodate the return of Christian Benteke to the starting XI, with the Belgian’s introduction giving both Ayew and Wilfried Zaha more space to trouble defenders - though the former is certainly doing the most damage.
With a big question mark still hovering over Zaha’s form and future, Ayew is quietly becoming Palace’s greatest threat. Here he covered more ground than any of his team-mates and continued battling right until the very end.
Contests with Watford have developed a little edge in recent years, with the Hornets having a penchant for sharing out the rough challenges on Zaha.
They were going for the wrong man today, however. No Palace player was felled more than the Ivorian while Ayew worked away diligently on the opposite flank and Nigel Pearson’s side paid for their mistake.
Perhaps the only downside to the forward’s afternoon was that he couldn’t claim a second in injury time when, having been slid through by Benteke, he couldn’t quite round Ben Foster to finish.
Ayew may not possess the beguiling trickery and flair of Zaha, but as Palace’s £80 million-rated man struggles to justify his price tag or argument for a crack at the Champions League, Palace’s bargain buy continues to come up trumps.
