Crystal Palace played out a 0-0 draw with West Ham on Monday night that put a major dent in their charge for European football.
Crystal Palace were held to a goalless draw by relegation-fighting West Ham at Selhurst Park in a game that left their Premier League ambitions hanging by a thread.
In a game of very few chances, Palace thought they had scored the winning goal six minutes from time when star man Ismaila Sarr buried a chance from six yards out but Jean-Philippe Mateta was adjudged to have handballed in the build-up.
That was the only time Palace really looked like scoring in a second half in which West Ham seemed content with the point and Palace, after progressing to the Conference League semi-finals on Thursday did not have the energy required to find the answer.
It is a result that leaves Palace five points shy of the European places and although they do still have a game in hand, it is against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The first chance of note came after seven minutes when Jorgen Strand Larsen attempted a smart shot on the swivel but was unable to direct it goalwards.
Brennan Johnson, who had another game in keeping with his current levels of confidence, had an excellent opportunity after 20 minutes but failed to direct his header remotely close to the goal.
He did have another chance five minutes later and this effort was far better, coming within a whisker of beating the right upright but seeing his effort narrowly sail wide.
After that chance, it was West Ham who began to have more chances and show more confidence.
Just before half-time, Dean Henderson was forced into a huge save by Konstantinos Mavropanos, with the Greek defender’s header coming in with force and the England goalkeeper able to get a solid hand on it.
Tyrick Mitchell had the last decent chance of the first half, dragging an effort wide when Palace looked to counter in a four v four situation.
In the second half, Palace had more of the ball but were ultimately unable to create enough chances, with fatigue clearly setting in after a game in Florence and the celebrations that followed.
Sarr thought he had scored but the goal was correctly ruled out for a handball by Mateta and the game effectively fizzled out from there.
Palace had just nine shots, the fewest West Ham have faced all season, with only one on target and an expected goals of just 0.68, so it was far from prolific from the Eagles.
There are still six games to go for them to try and finish as high up the table as possible but ultimately with the Conference League sure to the priority, the Premier League will likely take a backward step for Oliver Glasner’s men now.