Zaha gets his kicks by punishing Saints
SOUTHAMPTON felt the backlash after Leeds kicked and wound up Wilfried Zaha on Monday.
Accused of going to ground too easily by Leeds midfielder Kalvin Phillips following last week’s game, Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira was forced to start Zaha on the bench against Southampton yesterday.
‘For someone who dives so much, he has an awful lot of bruises on his ankles,’ said Vieira pre-match.
The half hour he ended up handing Zaha was more than enough time for Crystal Palace’s star man to produce the game’s decisive moment. It came just after four minutes of injury time were announced, Zaha cleverly rolling away from Southampton centre back Jan Bednarek and firing a low shot from the edge of the box into the net via the inside of the post.
Zaha would have taken extra satisfaction from condemning Southampton to defeat. He was jeered on to the pitch at St Mary’s, where they have never forgotten his spat a few years ago with James Ward-Prowse, but silenced those with his last-gasp strike.
Zaha’s goal earned them a first victory in five, a first come-frombehind win in the league this season and took him to a career-best 12 league goals for the campaign.
Vieira said: ‘He holds the ball, he’s really strong and he’s got this kind of desire to score the goals. He took the chance and this is really good.
‘I’m not worried about who that [criticism of Zaha] came from. Wilfried is a goalscorer, a fighter and he stays strong on his feet.
‘The game against Leeds was [still] in our legs, especially Wilfried’s and the plan was for him to come on and it’s important for players to understand that we are a team and everyone has an important role to play.’
Before Zaha entered the fray, Eberechi Eze was one of the players in Palace yellow who stepped up in the absence of their talisman. A week short of a year since his previous goal, Eze cancelled out Oriol Romeu’s early header to draw Palace level with his first strike since his recovery from a serious Achilles tendon injury.
Eze was stopped in his tracks last season on the day he received a text message informing him he was in England’s provisional squad for the Euros. It has been a long way back and patience has been required since his return to fitness, having made his first appearance in November.
Vieira said: ‘It was a long journey for Ebs and I’m really pleased for him because being out for seven months is really challenging.’
Southampton have now won just one of their last nine games and manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said: ‘It is very, very hard to take and always when we are in the position to make this next step, we fail and maybe we fail because we are not good enough.’