Despite taking an early lead through Keane Lewis-Potter, Brentford were beaten 3-1 by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

A superb cross from Mads Roerslev set up Lewis-Potter for the opener inside 90 seconds, as he stretched to poke home and put the Bees ahead.

But goals from Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze before half-time, followed by the former's second strike after the break, consigned Thomas Frank's side to defeat in south London.

Lewis-Potter goal gets Brentford off to a bright start at Selhurst Park

Brentford made two changes from the 4-1 home defeat to Wolves earlier this week, as Thomas Frank switched from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 and brought Zanka and Mathias Jensen in for Neal Maupay and Yehor Yarmoliuk.

As for Crystal Palace, they made no changes from their 2-1 loss to Chelsea, with Roy Hodgson opting for the same team that lost at Stamford Bridge.

The Eagles boss may have regretted that decision just 90 seconds into the game, as Brentford took the lead.

A gorgeous flick from Jensen into the path of Roerslev led to the full-back whipping a fantastic ball across the face of goal and into the path of Lewis-Potter, who slid in and poked the ball into the back of the net.

A lengthy VAR check confirmed that the goalscorer was onside, and a second cheer from the away end was further evidence that the Bees were 1-0 ahead.

10 minutes later, Palace were level. Olise received the ball out wide and, when his cross evaded everyone in the box, the ball fell to Jordan Ayew on the opposite flank. The forward whipped a cross back to Olise at the far post, and he beat Saman Ghoddos to the ball to volley into the back of the net from inside the six-yard box.

Brentford had an opportunity to re-take the lead on 18 minutes, with the trio that combined for the goal doing so again. Jensen lifted the ball over the top for Roerslev to run on to and the defender found Lewis-Potter inside the box. The former Hull man shot straight at Henderson, who kept the ball in his clutches. 

The 25-minute mark saw Brentford try their luck again, as a corner that hit the first man came back to Saman Ghoddos, who put in another cross into the box, which was met by Nathan Collins. The centre-back met it well but it drifted just wide of the post.

Seven minutes before the break, the hosts took the lead. A ball out wide to Tyrik Mitchell was threaded into Jean-Philippe Mateta, who had proved to be a handful throughout the first half, and the striker shifted immediately on to Eze. The midfielder rolled Ethan Pinnock and slotted into the bottom corner.

Olise's second strike confirms defeat for Bees in south London

Christian Nørgaard had the first chance of the second half, when Lewis-Potter carried the ball towards the edge of the area and, after a scramble which saw both teams try to gain possession, the ball fell to the Dane on the edge of the box and his side-footed effort was saved by Dean Henderson.

Crystal Palace doubled their lead with almost an hour on the clock - Olise scoring his second goal of the game. Marc Guéhi played the ball into the midfielder, who drove beyond Collins and Nørgaard and, from just inside the penalty area, placed it beyond Mark Flekken.

Olise was looking for his hat-trick less than six minutes later, when Palace caught their visitors on the counter-attack. The ex-Reading man ran at Nørgaard, before bending an effort just wide of the post.

Like Olise, Eze wanted his second of the game with 20 minutes to play. On the swivel, he received Olise's pass with his right foot and struck with his left from just inside the Brentford box. Flekken parried and the Bees cleared their lines. 

Maupay was then inches away from pulling one back; some neat work on the edge of the box from Mikkel Damsgaard teed up the forward who rattled the crossbar. The Bees kept the attack alive and Yoane Wissa lifted over the bar from inside the six-yard box having been picked out by Vitaly Janelt.

Olise had one final chance in stoppage-time when he beat Collins and, rather than going for goal to net his third, squared across the box. Ethan Pinnock read the situation well and cleared over his own crossbar to safety.

Brentford: Flekken, Zanka, Pinnock, Collins, Roerslev (Maupay 63), Jensen (Onyeka 63), Nørgaard (Damsgaard 67), Janelt (Yarmoliuk 80), Wissa, Lewis-Potter (Olakigbe 80)

Subs not used: Strakosha, Adedokun, Brierley, Peart-Harris

Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Guéhi, Andersen, Mitchell, Lerma, Richards, Ayew (Schlupp, 90+2), Eze (Hughes 86), Olise, Mateta (França 86)

Subs not used: Matthews, Tomkins, Riedewald, Ahamada, Ozoh, Édouard

Frank gives his thoughts on Palace defeat

Head coach Thomas Frank believes it was a lack of "quality and decisiveness in the crucial moments" that saw Brentford defeated by Crystal Palace in south London.

The Bees boss said: “I have no complaints about effort or mentality from the players - they are the two key areas for any team to have if they want to compete in any league and, especially, in the Premier League. I'm so, so pleased with that.  

“The decisive factor today was the quality and decisiveness in the crucial moments in both boxes and, in that aspect, Crystal Palace were better than us today, so fair play to them."

Frank added: “I spoke before the game about Olise and Eze, that we had to keep them quiet and, if we’d done that, we would have won 1-0! 

“I also must look at what we could have done, especially the first and the third goals, we could and should have done better. Besides that, I think we created a quite few big chances and good moments. On another day, we could have got more out of it.” 

Zanka: Brentford not good enough in either box

Zanka felt that Brentford were not good enough in either penalty area against Crystal Palace.

“It’s disappointing, especially when looking back on the great start we made to the game. We started off on the right foot,” he said.

“But we weren’t good enough in either box today and that hurts.

“We all went into this game with the mindset that we had to bounce back. Thomas [Frank] decided to mix it up a bit and play three at the back and initially it looked like it was working.”

The defender added: “We go through rough patches every year, so it’s about how you get out of them.

“We had it the first year in the Prem when we lost five games, so we know how it is and we know how to get out of it.

“It’s up to us to dig deeper and make sure we get out of it as quickly as possible.”