Jordan Ayew strikes for Crystal Palace to keep Brighton in the mire | Football

These are worrying times for Graham Potter. The Brighton manager watched his side suffer the ignominy of a first home defeat in the top flight at the hands of their bitter rivals that leaves them still waiting to record a first victory in 2020.

Jordan Ayew’s seventh Premier League goal of the season was enough to record a famous win for Crystal Palace as they gained sweet revenge for losing twice against these opponents last season. After the promise shown in the first half of the campaign under their new manager, it looks like being another spring filled with anxiety on the south coast.

“We created enough to get something from the game and that’s why it’s a sore one for us,” said Potter. “Sometimes luck is a commodity that you need and we didn’t have too much of that. But I believe in what we’re trying to do and now we have to pull it all together.”

Yet despite his positivity, Brighton remain the only side in England’s top four divisions not to have won this year, even though they registered 24 shots on target against Palace. Shane Duffy’s absence due to a family funeral had forced Potter to revert to a back four as Glenn Murray also made way against his former club. His counterpart, Roy Hodgson, named an unchanged side after Palace finally ended their own winless run last week against Newcastle to edge them closer to guaranteed survival for an unprecedented eighth successive season, with the 72-year-old close to agreeing a one-year extension to his contract. After this result, their supporters might be hoping chairman Steve Parish can persuade him to stay on for another decade.

As usual on these occasions, there was a significant police presence outside the ground and there was no shortage of action in the opening exchanges on the pitch despite the early kick-off. A glorious pass from James McArthur which picked out Christian Benteke in the fifth minute could easily have given Palace the perfect start but the striker’s volley was nowhere near the target. His confidence in front of goal may be almost non-existent these days but the Belgian is always a danger in the air and it was from his header that Cheikhou Kouyaté had Palace’s next opportunity, only to be denied by a good save from Mat Ryan.

Brighton were slow to find their rhythm but, having dominated large parts of the 1-1 draw between these sides at Selhurst Park in December, started to do so again. Neal Maupay’s shot was well saved by Vicente Guaita after a mistake from Wilfried Zaha gifted away possession, with the Ivory Coast forward – most definitely the pantomime villain in these parts – then getting himself into a heated exchange with Ezequiel Schelotto after the Brighton substitute kicked the ball at him after it went out of play. Replays appeared to show Zaha spitting on the ground rather than directly at the Argentinian. “I’m glad he didn’t lose his head,” admitted a relieved Hodgson afterwards.

Solly March and Gary Cahill both then spurned excellent chances for their respective sides so an entertaining first half came to an end with no breakthrough but plenty of incident. There was another straight after the restart when Lewis Dunk’s goalbound header was inadvertently cleared by Maupay when the ball struck him full in the face. The Frenchman had ended his eight-match goal drought last week having previously not scored since the trip to Selhurst Park before Christmas and he could not take another excellent opportunity when the ball fell to him following Jaïro Riedewald’s slide tackle.

Potter’s decision to introduce Murray alongside Maupay up front with 25 minutes to play was an indication of Brighton’s desire to claim all three points but it was Ayew who provided the game’s decisive moment after a brilliant reverse pass from Benteke.