Victories for relegation rivals Leeds United and Nottingham Forest over the weekend heaped extra pressure on to the shoulders of the visitors, but Tottenham’s failure to beat Brighton on Saturday, courtesy of a late Albion equaliser, was a morale-booster for a squad that appeared doomed at the start of the year following back-to-back defeats at the hands of Wolves and Forest.
Much was made too, especially by Spurs fans, of Palace’s decision to allow their squad to party on the streets of Florence with supporters on Thursday night to celebrate seeing off Fiorentina to reach the last four of the Uefa Conference League.
Oliver Glasner, the Palace manager, refreshed his starting line-up with four changes, with Adam Wharton ruled out by an injury picked up in Italy. Maxence Lacroix was also hurt against Fiorentina, in a collision with team-mate Daniel Muñoz, but had perked up enough to start this one
Jefferson Lerma, Will Hughes, Brennan Johnson and Jorgen Strand Larsen were recalled, with Daichi Kamada, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta dropping to the bench.
Unsurprisingly, Nuno stuck with the West Ham side who beat Wolves 4-0 nine days previously, the result that put Tottenham into the bottom three for the first time.
Strand Larsen poked Palace’s first chance wide at the near post after Jaydee Canvot had stopped Crysencio Summerville bursting through at the other end.
West Ham’s first opportunity arrived in the 14th minute when Taty Castellanos was too high from the edge of the box, but the game’s next chance was a big one and badly squandered.
Palace spent £35m on bringing in Johnson from Spurs in January, but the man whose slight touch won the Europa League final last season went into the game having failed to impress or score for his current club.
The Wales winger passed up a great opportunity by heading Tyrick Mitchell’s cross wide while unmarked from 10 yards out.
Johnson, booked for hacking El Hadji Malick Diouf down soon after, curled a much better effort marginally wide as West Ham continued to live dangerously.
Axel Disasi thumped a reply over on the turn but was offside anyway, and a much better chance came their way six minutes before the break.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who had been a prominent partier in Italy, mistimed a punch that fell to Castellanos, whose overhead-kick was prevented from going in by Lacroix. The England keeper soon made amends with a superb stop to keep out Konstantinos Mavropanos’s header.
Jarrod Bowen saw Hughes block a shot early in the second half that, judging by his reaction, the England man had expected to see flying into the top corner. Bowen attempted an overhead kick soon after but that was blocked.
West Ham soon had to repel a barrage of corners after Johnson, causing problems on the right, sent in dangerous centres.
Glasner made a triple change just before the half-hour mark, with Mateta replacing Strand Larsen and Daichi Kamada and Sarr sent on as well.
A slip at the back by Lerma almost let in Castellanos but Canvot came across to stop him and, when the Argentina striker toppled to the turf, referee Darren England was not remotely interested in awarding a penalty.
Nuno made his first change with 15 minutes to go, sending Callum Wilson on for another January signing yet to open his account for his new London employers, Pablo.
Mads Hermansen had not had much to do in the West Ham goal but nervously fumbled a tame Lerma behind for a corner. The visitors coped with that, with Castellanos forcing Henderson into a save at the other end not long after.