Blooper trooper
TROY GIFT FOR EAGLES
CRYSTAL PALACE boss Sam Allardyce hailed Wilfried Zaha after the winger ripped Watford to shreds – and put the Eagles on course to beat the drop.
Zaha was man of the match as the Hornets struggled to cope with his pace – and won the free-kick from which Troy Deeney headed the winning own-goal.
The result made it three wins in a row for the south Londoners, having beaten West Brom and Middlesbrough, and moves them up to 16th – four points clear of the bottom three.
Allardyce (right) said: “Wilf was outstanding for us. He attracted two or three players around him at times – and often he beat them.
“He’s helping out the defence too and, for me, it was just a pity he didn’t score.
“But, in the end, it didn’t matter because we got the one we wanted and a very precious three points.”
Allardyce reckons 10 more points could keep the Eagles up – and with home games against Arsenal, Leicester, Burnley, Hull and Tottenham still to come, that looks possible.
Palace’s form at Selhurst this season has been their key problem, with nine defeats already, and Big Sam once claiming his side were frozen by fear.
But he said: “I think we might have put it behind us. Three victories on the trot from where we were a few weeks ago, I don’t think anybody could have envisaged that. But we’ve done it. Hopefully, we can go on and pick up points from here.”
For Watford, with enough points already to feel relatively safe, there is nevertheless reason for concern.
They have won only one of their last 13 league matches and kept just one clean sheet in the league since last October.
M’baye Niang had a huge opportunity to level in injury time when he lifted a lob over the bar, with keeper Wayne Hennessey stranded, but in truth the Hornets were well below par. However, boss Walter Mazzarri felt his team deserved a point – because referee Martin Atkinson missed a foul by Luka Milivojevic on defender Niang in the build-up to Palace’s second-half winner.
Mazzarri said: “We were not lucky at all, and there was a foul on Niang before their goal, which meant we had only 10 men. I’m not saying we deserved to win but, in my opinion, the game should have ended 0-0.
“If we look at the table, I’m not worried, if we keep playing like this.”
Palace’s breakthrough eventually came when Sebastian Prodl fouled Zaha on the left and Yohan Cabaye’s free-kick was nodded into his own net by Deeney.
The home side should have added to their tally with Cabaye and Christian Benteke going close.