Crystal Palace's shared the spoils in a bittersweet game with West Ham as they drew 1-1 with the hosts at the London Stadium.

Bakary Sako would go off with an injury before half-time following Christian Benteke's second-only Premier League goal this season.

It was ex-Hammers defender James Tomkins who gave away the penalty for West Ham, which was later converted by Mark Noble, in what proved to be the game's only goals.

Here are five things we learned...

Sako is the latest victim of the Palace's injury curse

Both Andros Townsend and Yohan Cabaye were forced off with injuries of their own in the New Year's Day draw with Manchester City last year.

They featured in the trip north of the River Thames to the London Stadium, but Sako was the latest victim of a reccuring poor run of luck for the Eagles with staying fit.

A timeline on his return is too early ot say, but either way it's hardly something the Eagles needed as they just began to gather momentum in the match.

Benteke finally found the net

When Townsend found the Belgian international with a cross which lead to the opening goal, it felt like retribution for what has been a less-than-stellar season for the striker.

The strike on 23 minutes is his first in 2018, with his last coming in the 3-0 victory away to Leicester City last month on December 16.

Despite the goals not being there, he has produced in recent games with three consecutive assists for goals - against Southampton, Burnley, and Arsenal.

It was a decent game - for about an hour

The two sides went into the break fairly even after an end-to-end match which saw chances spurned by Palace in the first 45 minutes' injury time.

Luka Milivojevic threatened to score another world class goal with a volley from outside the box, meanwhile midfielder James McArthur could not hit the target with a close-range header.

Shot-stopper Wayne Hennessey made a great save five minutes into the restart but the rest of the game past the hour mark became slow in tempo and excitement.

In the end, it was clear both sides were content with a draw.

A sytem change might be coming for the time being

Sako began up top with Christian Benteke, interchanging with Wilfried Zaha, in a 4-4-2 system which gave West Ham's defence some problems.

It looked as though the two of them were enough to disrupt the back three of Angelo Ogbonna, Jason Collins, and Declan Rice.

However, when that became a 4-5-1 through the introduction of Cabaye for the winger, things became far more difficult for Hodgson's men as they struggled to find their usual avenues for attacking.

Maybe we're still some time away from Cabaye reaching full fitness, but the Eagles could go for a 4-5-1 system given the latest injury.

The Crystal Palace of earlier this season would have lost this match

There is quite obviously a difference between the side Frank de Boer began the season with in August before he was sacked after the Burnley defeat, and the one Roy Hodgson.

One was barely able to adopt the former Netherlands international's system in a remarkably poor start to the league campaign, the other has them having only lost twice in their last 13.

If the same side which started the 2017/18 season plated this match then they would have lost. Instead, this is a natural return of a team capable of giving many sides in the league a real headache.