Stopping Eagles star Zaha from flying high would be Cardiff ’s perfect present
ALTHOUGH Cardiff City, after those damaging away defeats to West Ham United and Watford, may have earmarked this afternoon’s trip to Crystal Palace (3pm) as a golden opportunity to claim their first away win of the season, recent form suggests that will be easier said than done.
It’s has, after all, been a very happy Christmas for Roy Hodgson’s Eagles after they pulled off arguably the biggest upset of the current Premier League season to shock champions Manchester City 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Backs against the walls?
It has often been the case for Cardiff on the road this term and Neil Warnock will expect a resurgent Palace to come out all guns blazing.
The Bluebirds boss is fond of reminding the media that teams tend to “lick their lips” at the prospect of facing “little old” Cardiff at home.
And you suspect Palace will view this Boxing Day battle as the perfect chance to consolidate their form and secure three successive league wins for the first time since the final three games of last season.
Hodgson was delighted his tactical masterplan of giving Pep Guardiola’s central defenders time on the ball worked out – and he’ll have something up his sleeve for City too.
That’s before even mentioning Wilfried Zaha, a former Cardiff loan flop turned Premier League superstar.
Players of the popular Fantasy Football game will have been dismayed to see Palace kingpin Zaha deprived of points despite playing a starring role in that 3-2 win over Man City – which also provided a Goal Of The Season contender from Andros Townsend, but brought nothing in terms of goals or assists for the 26-year-old Ivory Coast international forward.
Yet, there is no debating how much Zaha has improved since that ill-fated 12-game stint on loan from Manchester United in 2014, which yielded no goals and coincided with the Bluebirds’ relegation to the Championship under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
It’s unlikely that Zaha – who has started 121 times for Palace since returning to his boyhood club in 2015, scoring 24 goals – will feel the pressure of facing up to his former side.
“Wilf’s always got motivation and I don’t think that ever varies. I don’t think Wilf needs extra motivation,” Hodgson said last month as the Ivorian’s form took an uncharacteristic dip.
“I don’t think he needs people pressurising him, putting pressure on him for a performance.
“I think that his attitude to each and every game, be it a home game here at Selhurst Park against a team lower in the league or whether it’s a top match against the Manchester Uniteds, Cities and Liverpools is that he goes out each time to give a performance, to go and do what he knows he’s good at doing.
“We try to profit from that as best we can by getting the ball to him and hoping he can weave that magic which he’s capable of and win us the matches. I believe in his abilities.”
The challenge for Warnock, then, is develop a formula that will restrict Zaha, Townsend and company before the Yorkshireman can even start to contemplate a first win on the road since returning to the top flight.
Cardiff have lost on each of their four visits to London this season (if you count) Watford and Warnock would certainly accept a point if only to break that unwanted record at the other end of the M4.
To come for Cardiff is a visit to Leicester (who Palace beat 1-0 in their last home match) on December 29, before they welcome red-hot Tottenham Hotspur – 6-2 away winners at Everton on Sunday – to Cardiff City Stadium on New Year’s Day.
So, emerging relatively unscathed through the festive period will be a major test of Warnock’s side’s mettle and their survival credentials.
Overcoming the in-form Eagles, the much-improved Zaha and the away form hoodoo?
Now that would be a very special Christmas present for Bluebirds fans everywhere.