WE DON’T NEED WIL
Luka’s rocket shows Roy’s boys can win without star man Zaha
NO Wilfried Zaha – no worries. For the moment, anyway.
Palace’s suspended talismanic forward sat in the stand sheltering from the cold, wind and rain, watched on as his team-mates chalked up only their second win in 12 games.
It has come at a good moment for the club who know they could lose their star man in the January transfer window.
A super strike from Luka Milivojevic was the outstanding moment of a game that never stood out.
For Palace fans, the elephant in the room was finally shown the door.
But their side didn’t play well and the same could be said about Leicester, for whom – if they had produced a better supply line to striker Jamie Vardy – it might have ended differently.
Palace boss Roy Hodgson said: “I like to think we can show we can win games without Wilf, although any team would miss a player like him.
“The facts now show we can, although I am sure his name won’t disappear from the verdict on this match.
“I accept it wasn’t a pretty game but I’d like to think we deserved the win.
“Pretty games happen when teams attack and the opposition then attack.
“But both defences were very strong and I thought Harry Maguire and Wes Morgan were excellent for Leicester.
“I also accept the goal probably deserved a better game but I am not complaining. We have played better and lost.
“It wasn’t easy. We lost our keeper Wayne Hennessey before the game with a back spasm injury, but Vicente Guaita came in and had a marvellous game.
“I always knew Luka had that type of goal in him because he hits a ball with incredible accuracy from 20-25 metres.”
Leicester boss Claude Puel said: “One moment settled the game.
“We needed to keep the ball better and lacked quality at that stage. We improved in the second half and I thought we were unlucky not to get something here.”
It’s two games now for Leicester without a goal after they had scored in all their previous matches.
Puel added: “We will continue with our style and hopefully put things right again. We needed to fight better in the first half but we did then improve.
“In all honesty, not a lot was expected from this game. And we got nothing more than the expected.”
To be fair, Leicester were by far the better side. More skilful, seemingly had more nous to open doors, yet they could never deliver the killer pass.
Palace, without Zaha, are a rudderless ship.
Andros Townsend, having one of his best seasons for years, worked hard but he rarely had the necessary support.
Leicester, on the other hand, simply hoped Vardy would do the business for them.
He is not fully fit, and he was limping in the ninth minute following a tackle.
Also, there was an absence of the long passes forward which he thrives on.
It turned out to be a wretched affair as the central defenders from both sides never faltered.
Maguire was massive for Leicester, and Wilfred Ndidi won a lot of the ball in midfield but his overall distribution was poor and it allowed Palace to get off the ropes and fight back.
So it came as a surprise when Palace strung together passes of menace.
Townsend worked well with Aaron Wan-Bissaka to offer the usually creative Milivojevic a juicy chance to strike at goal and he accepted with glee, driving home from 25 yards in the 38th minute for only their fifth goal of the season.
And Palace showed their can be life without Zaha, which has come at a crucial moment in a period when he is high on the the wanted list of clubs anxious to do January business.
Leicester had a good chance to bounce back from a two-match winless run but they failed to truly muster a decent effort at Palace’s debut-making keeper Guaita.
However, Vardy did have a goal controversially chalked off for kicking the ball out of Guaita’s hands.