Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m) netted the only goal as Crystal Palace secured a 1-0 win over rivals Brighton and Hove Albion.

Here are our Scout Notes from the Amex Stadium.

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STRAND LARSEN DEBUT

After his £48m move from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.1m) made his debut for Palace on Sunday.

As the focal point in Oliver Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 formation, the Norwegian did pretty well.

He produced three shots, all taken inside the box, and was only denied a debut goal by Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), who saved his sweeping late effort from Daniel Munoz‘s (£5.8m) cutback.

“I had cramps all over for that last finish! It was unlucky – a good save by the goalie. I think you see today that I already got a few chances, and the last one almost went in. The style of play here suits me. It is intense, high pressure, winning the ball high up the pitch. We had a few chances today, and the more we train together, the more we play together, they will know my qualities and my strengths. I felt like I had a good game today but there is a lot of improvement as well, but a really good start to my journey here. I got fed a lot today and I will be in the future, so I’m looking forward to it.” – Jorgen Strand Larsen

“He will get better and better. I told him after the game in three or four weeks, he will know where to pass it. He’s not used to the way we are playing. His effort and presence. He defended the set plays well. He was a constant threat and that’s very positive.” – Oliver Glasner on Jorgen Strand Larsen

With Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m) out of Gameweek 26, as he waits to find out if he needs knee surgery or can muddle through until the end of the season, Strand Larsen looks poised to start again against Burnley.

SARR AGAIN

But it was another debutant, Evann Guessand (£6.2m), who directly helped unlock the Brighton defence.

Shortly after coming on, the Ivory Coast international picked out Sarr, who lifted the ball over Verbruggen with Palace’s first shot on target.

It’s now back-to-back goals for Sarr, who, having blazed an earlier chance wide, now ranks seventh among all midfielders for expected goals (xG), despite having only made 15 appearances.

Above: Midfielders sorted by expected goals (xG) in 2025/26

Palace face three of the current bottom five at Selhurst Park over the next five Gameweeks, but will likely blank in Gameweek 31, which you can read more about here.

THE PALACE OF OLD?

“I think we defended very well. This was always our foundation, I mentioned it so often.” – Oliver Glasner

Palace looked back to their physical, defensive best at the Amex, as they restricted Brighton to just seven shots and 0.74 xG.

Fabian Hurzeler changed formation and threw on the likes of Yankuba Minteh (£5.7m) and Danny Welbeck (£6.2m) in an attempt to equalise, but apart from Charalampos Kostoulas’ (£4.8m) second-half effort, there was very little else.

Maxence Lacroix (£5.1m) and Jefferson Lerma (£4.9m) excelled in the back three and banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points, with Palace’s other centre-half, Chris Richards (£4.6m), falling just one short.

Munoz also finished on nine DefCons and created that late opportunity for Strand Larsen, so he wasn’t too far away from a haul, even if he was a bit fortunate to avoid a second booking.

Notably, the Colombian wing-back racked up 28 points against his next two opponents (Burnley and Wolves) earlier in the campaign.

VAN HECKE INJURY LATEST

Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5m) missed out for Brighton on Sunday with a “small” hamstring issue.

Hurzeler consequently hopes to have the Dutch centre-half back in Gameweek 26.

When asked about the likelihood of him playing against Aston Villa on Wednesday, the German responded, “I hope so, yes.”

In other news, Harry Howell (£4.5m) made his full Premier League debut, playing on the right of the Brighton front three, while Kostoulas was preferred to Welbeck up top.

BRIGHTON’S POOR FORM

But given Brighton’s lack of form, this was a performance unsurprisingly devoid of quality and creativity.

The Seagulls have now won just one of their last 12 Premier League matches, with Hurzeler experiencing mounting pressure.

“We had wrong decisions when we conceded and then afterwards, we looked quite fragile. We didn’t show the right reactions, which was disappointing. It was not good enough today. We are all disappointed. The loss of energy, the loss of intensity, I was not happy because it just was not good enough.” – Fabian Hurzeler

Brighton have some tricky fixtures coming up, too, with encounters against Aston Villa (a), Brentford (a), Nottingham Forest (h), Arsenal (h), Sunderland (a) and Liverpool (h) before the end of March.