Wily Wilfried can stand up for himself, says Vieira

PATRICK VIEIRA hailed Wilfried Zaha’s ability to stand up for himself after he withstood rough Southampton treatment to set up the winner for Crystal Palace on Saturday.

It was the Eagles’ third successive home win and took them into the top half of the league.

Zaha, whose contract expires in nine months, made the only goal of the game, scored by Odsonne Edouard, and was a constant menace to the Saints, who missed a host of secondhalf opportunities.

The Ivorian, 30 in a few weeks’ time, showed strength and aggression off the ball to dispossess Lyanco and set up the move from which Palace scored. ‘Wilfried, believe me, does not need protection,’ said Vieira. ‘He will stand up for himself. After the first couple of fouls on him I was hoping the referee would speak to the Southampton players to make them aware he had an eye on them but he didn’t. This is what Wilfried has to expect. I don’t want him to change because that makes him the player that he is and we want to have those type of players — to fight when we need it.’

These days, Zaha has more support in attack with Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise enjoying excellent seasons. But if Zaha were to depart for nothing next summer, it would be a huge blow to Vieira and there would surely be no shortage of suitors. Through a combination of fine goalkeeping from Vincente Guaita and wasteful finishing from Southampton, Palace kept their first clean sheet of the season at Selhurst Park and defender Joachim Andersen feels that is down to more discipline throughout the side and mastering of some dark arts like time-wasting. ‘Getting points from games like this is something we spoke about,’ said the Denmark international. ‘We are getting better at wasting a little bit of time. It’s about winning games, that’s all.’