Aston Villa revive survival hopes
BIRMINGHAM — Aston Villa revived their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Premier League as two goals by Egyptian forward Trezeguet gave them a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The result lifted Villa one place to 18th on 30 points from 35 games, but they are still four points adrift of safety, while Palace stayed 14th on 42 points after a fifth successive defeat.
Palace made a bright start and had a goal controversially disallowed in the seventh minute after a VAR check deemed that the ball came off Mamadou Sakho’s arm, although it appeared to strike his shoulder.
Trezeguet fired Villa ahead in first-half stoppage time when he met a Conor Hourihane free kick at the far post and side-footed it superbly into the opposite corner from close range.
The home side had a penalty awarded by referee Martin Atkinson overturned after a lengthy VAR check before Trezeguet doubled their lead in the 59th minute with a clinical finish from seven metres.
Palace keeper Vicente Guaita denied Hourihane and Jack Grealish with a string of saves and his counterpart Pepe Reina did well to keep out efforts by Christian Benteke and Patrick van Aanholt in a lively game.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha has called on social media platforms to identify and remove users who resort to racist abuse after the forward was targeted before the Sunday match.
The Ivory Coast international shared images of the messages he received, including one of members of the white supremacist organisation the Ku Klux Klan, and a 12-year-old boy from Solihull who was arrested.
Zaha thanked West Midlands Police for taking swift action, but said it was not enough to promote anti-racism slogans.
“People need to understand that whatever your age, that your behaviour and your words come with consequences and you cannot hide behind social media,” Zaha said in a statement on Twitter.
“It’s important social media platforms do as they did yesterday and seek out these individuals and remove them. This is not the first time I have received messages like this, nor am I the only player to receive messages like this — it happens everyday.
“It’s not enough to be disgusted by these messages I received and move on. It isn’t enough to just say #notoracism. We need action, we need education, things need to change.”
Sheffield United’s David McGoldrick, who scored twice in a 3-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday, was also the target of racist abuse and his club posted a screenshot from the player’s Instagram account with a caption saying “2020 and this is life”.
“As a club, we will support David McGoldrick and will do all we can to find the perpetrator of this disgusting message,” Sheffield United said on Twitter.
“We will work with the relevant authorities to ensure the person behind this post is brought to justice. This cannot continue. Something needs to change.”