ISMAILA SARR inspired Crystal Palace to beat rivals Brighton, with a helping hand from Michael Oliver.
The Eagles ended Fabian Hurzeler's unbeaten home run in the Premier League, leaving The Amex stunned and silent.
Sarr, signed as a replacement for Michael Olise, grabbed a brilliant double after Trevoh Chalobah opened the scoring against the run of play – with Oliver hampering Brighton's defense in the build-up to the first goal.
Marc Guehi gave Brighton a late own goal, but on reflection he doesn't even care.
It further helped Oliver Glasner's men out of trouble at the bottom. After a terrible start to the season, they have now lost just one of their last eight.
Palace had not beaten Brighton in their last six attempts in this rather bizarre rivalry.
The way the visitors started it looked like that trend would continue.
Glasner threw his arms in the air at his side's attempts to clear, with Marc Guehi once lucky when he was robbed of the ball meters from the touchline.
But Brighton couldn't capitalize on Palace's nervousness and the momentum swung thanks to Oliver's shoulder and shocking defending.
Palace started a rare break. Carlos Baleba tried to stop Eberechi Eze but was prevented by the referee standing in his way.
Since the referees only had to stop play if the ball hit them, play was allowed to continue and the Eagles won a corner and then another corner, from which they struck.
Will Hughes hit a ball to the near post which, after missing Jean-Philippe Mateta, should have been easy to defend.
But Brighton made a mess of it. The ball hit Jean Paul van Hecke and fell in front of Sarr, unmarked meters from the goal.
The winger couldn't quite connect, but Chalobah was also left alone and free to convert his second goal since joining from Chelsea.
Brighton collapsed from there. Palace showed strength that the hosts could not match.
Bart Verbruggen made the save three minutes after Daniel Munoz's first good shot, but was unable to stop Sarr moments later.
The visitors headed a deep free kick towards Tyrick Mitchell. Both he and Tariq Lamptey, who was hooked at half-time, effectively dodged the header, allowing the ball to bounce off Mitchell's back.
He turned and made a beautiful cross to the far post, where Sarr had been allowed to slide between two blue and white shirts to nod.
It could have been three before half time, although Eze headed just wide from a Munoz cross.
Julio Enciso was brought on at the break and Hurzeler, having vented the first half at the referees, had clearly saved some of that anger for his players.
They emerged with an intensity that was desperately lacking before half-time, although they could not sustain it.
Maxence Larcroix had to block a Kaoru Mitoma effort before Dean Henderson made a smart stop from Lewis Dunk's header.
The England goalkeeper was hardly tested in the first half, but was now much busier and made a flying save to deny the electric Enciso.
Glasner made changes of his own, with Daichi Kamada and Eddie Nketiah coming into the picture as Eze limped off.
Brighton once again failed to capitalize on Palace's early wobble after the restart and the visitors were soon causing problems again.
Munoz had the ball in the net for a third goal, which would have been his third in four games, but the goal was correctly disallowed due to a foul by Sarr in the build-up.
With Nketiah through the middle, Palace again posed a threat on half-time.
The former Arsenal man came close to the near post before passing a ball to Sarr, who was stopped by Verbruggen.
Next time he was not to be denied. Palace again showed more fight as Hughes and Nketiah beat their men with headers and sent home Sarr.
He beat Dunk with the ball before passing Verbruggen and heading straight for the jubilant Palace fans.
Even a late and chaotic own goal from Guehi, after Henderson had cleared the ball from a corner, could not dampen their spirits.
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