Birthday boy Ismaila Sarr strikes twice as Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa 4-1 33v63

Ismaila Sarr struck a fantastic double as Crystal Palace continued their impressive recent record against Aston Villa with a 4-1 win in south London.

Sarr opened the scoring inside the first 30 minutes with a simple tap-in finish after Chris Richards’ header was parried directly into his path by Villa keeper Emi Martinez.

Morgan Rogers was denied an equaliser on the stroke of half-time by the closest of offside calls but it wouldn’t be long before the visitors were back on level .

Six minutes into the restart Rogers pounced on a clever flick from Ollie Watkins and finished with venom to bag his seventh goal of the Premier League season.

Watkins has now provided four league assists for Rogers in the current campaign, the most prolific duo behind only Jacob Murphy for Alexander Isak (six) and Savinho for Erling Haaland (five).

The Seagulls poked their noses in front seven minutes later when the in-form Jean-Philippe Mateta tallied his eighth league goal of the calendar year, tying Mohamed Salah at the top.

On his 27th birthday, Sarr added a second after 70 minutes with a sweet volley to give the hosts a two-goal advantage and all but seal the three points on the night.

Eddie Nketiah came on and put the icing on the cake for a fourth Palace goal in added time, giving the Londoners a third win in their last four outings against Villa in all competitions.

WATCH: Crystal Palace 4-1 Aston Villa Highlights 3o206y

As per the best football betting sites, Palace’s odds of finishing in the top half shortened to 9/2 following Tuesday’s impressive win.

Villa’s chances of playing in one of Europe’s top two competitions next season are dwindling by the day and their best shot at this point could be winning the Champions League in its entirety.

As of full-time, Unai Emery’s men are priced at 10/3 to finish in the top six as they currently sit tenth in the table, six points ahead of Palace in 12th who have a game in hand.