Crystal Palace 4-0 Hull City: Tigers Get Relegated As The Eagles Stay Up
Reuters / Ed Sykes
What a disappointment this will be for Hull City. All the work they have put in since the arrival of Marco Silva in January has now gone down the drain. Their dreams of staying in the Premier League for yet another year were crushed by Crystal Palace, and how ruthlessly and mercilessly so as well.
This wasn’t just a win for the Eagles, it was an absolute riot, and Hull only have themselves to blame. And to think it all started with a horror show from Andrea Ranocchia – the center-back on loan from Inter Milan, the man who won 68% of the votes in a poll asking fans which current loan player they would like to see become a full time player.
Ranocchia was becoming somewhat of a cult hero, having formed quite a magnificent pairing at center-back with Harry Maguire this season, until this moment of utter chaos.
A hopeful ball was lumped up field by Andros Townsend before being headed in to Ranocchia’s path by a teammate. All the Italian had to do was smash the ball as far away from the box as possible – a basic defensive clearance.
Instead, as the ball sat up, he unleashed an almost kungfu-esque kick and completely missed the ball, allowing the ever alert Wilfried Zaha to steal the ball and capitalize, calmly slotting the ball into the back of the net. That summed up the rest of the afternoon for the Tigers.
34 minutes into the game, and Palace found their second through another bit of abysmal defending. Hull are known for their incredulous defending from set-pieces, and when Jason Puncheon whipped a ball in from a corner, it was more than enough evidence as to why.
Christian Benteke has scored 15 goals this season, and 7 of them have been headers. Yet for some inexplicable reason, when Puncheon’s cross was delivered, the big Belgian was all alone in the box and was given a free header. It was almost as if Hull were asking to be relegated.
This incredible collapse at the back prompted Silva to haul off three defenders before the 50th minute, but it made absolutely no difference whatsoever. Palace went on to score another through a Luka Milivojevic penalty in the 84th minute, and yet another in stoppage time through Patrick van Aanholt to complete the humiliation.
“It’s really sad for the club and for our fans,” Marco Silva said after the game. “Of course we did our best to make something different and of course we tried to do everything to change. This is a sad day for us.”
Written by Reyhan Ashley Nath 
Manchester United fan, Wayne Rooney is his role model. Passionate writer who has written for several sites in the past. He’s also an aspiring pianist and creates background music for BlameFootball’s Youtube channel.