Crystal Palace 0 West Ham 1 analysis: Aaron Cresswell shows what Hammers were missing as he leads recovery

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Giuseppe Muro15 October 2016

Christian Benteke's dream week ended with a nightmare penalty miss as Crystal Palace crashed 1-0 at home to struggling West Ham.

The Belgium striker began the week by scoring the fastest goal in World Cup qualifying history on his way to a hat-trick against Gibraltar, and three days later celebrated the birth of his daughter.

But when handed the opportunity to cap a remarkable seven days by cancelling out Manuel Lanzini's strike, Benteke scooped his spot-kick horribly off target.

The miss condemned Palace to a first defeat in six matches while West Ham were able to climb out of the relegation zone following only their second win of the season.

Here, Standard Sport picks out five things we learnt at Selhurst Park

West Ham recovery is on

West Ham have climbed out of the relegation zone. It has been a difficult start to the season for the Hammers but they held on with 10 men against Crystal Palace to move up to 15th. This was an important win for West Ham and their first victory in six matches eases some of the pressure on Slaven Bilic. Bilic will hope his side have turned the corner as they look to climb the table.

Benteke wait goes on

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Christian Benteke is still waiting for his first Crystal Palace goal at Selhurst Park. The £27million signing has scored all of his goals this season away from home and wasted a great chance to end that when he missed a penalty at the end of the first half. Benteke got his spot-kick all wrong and sent his effort wide of the target. He also hit the outside of the post and headed inches over.

Adrian will be in the running for save of the season

The West Ham goalkeeper made an incredible one-handed reflex save to keep out a Connor Wickham header deep into second-half injury time to preserve three points for his side. An incredible save.

West Ham have missed Aaron Cresswell

The left-back was back in the side after three months out with a knee ligament injury and showed what a key player he is for the Hammers. His cross was turned into the net by Manuel Lanzini for the West Ham winner and his return is a huge boost for Slaven Bilic. But Cresswell was sent off for two quick bookings in the second half and will now miss next weekend's home game against Sunderland.

Simone Zaza needs a goal to get up and running

The Italian has now failed to score in six games for West Ham since joining on loan from Juventus but worked hard for his team here. Zaza got himself into good positions but lacked conviction in the final third.

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