Crystal Palace attacker Zaha: We fear no Premier League foe

Wilfried Zaha says that Crystal Palace should not be worried when coming up against the big Premier League teams due to the quality they possess in their own ranks.

The Eagles brushed Champions League-chasing Arsenal aside at Selhurst Park on Monday evening with an emphatic 3-0 win.

Palace took the lead through Jean-Philippe Mateta, who pounced inside the area to head home Joachim Andersen’s knockdown from a Conor Gallagher free-kick.

The South Londoners doubled their lead in the 26th minute when Jordan Ayew was picked out with a pinpoint pass through the heart of the Arsenal defence from Andersen. The Ghanaian curled his effort past Aaron Ramsdale to score his first since the 1-1 draw with Southampton in December.

Zaha had the chance to secure all three points in the second half when he was brought down clumsily inside the penalty area by Martin Odegaard. The Ivorian converted his 11th of the season past the England goalkeeper.

When asked about the performance highlighting how far Palace had come under Vieira, Zaha told Sky Sports: “It’s massive, because it shows the resilience the team has. In the past, we’d score a goal and then crumble. But now, it just shows that we can defend together and attack together.

“We worked on what we were going to do all week – we knew they like to play inside, so we tried to block them. When we had the chances, we just countered and got the goals we needed.”

Palace moved up to ninth in the Premier League table with their eighth victory of the season and are on an unbeaten run of seven games in all competitions.

“With the quality that we have, we just have to impose ourselves in the games that we play,” said Zaha, 29, who is out of contract at the end of next season. “It’s not about looking at the shirt badges or whatever.

“We have quality in our team, and if we play the way we want to play, we can hurt anyone.

“This shows that we don’t need to look over our shoulder, and we can look up the table and try to move further on.”

Palace take on Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Easter Sunday, having knocked out Millwall, Hartlepool, Stoke and Everton en route to Wembley.

“It’s a massive confidence boost,” said Zaha of the 3-0 win against the Gunners.

“But we are taking every game as it comes. Obviously, that is a big game. But we are just trying to win every game we can right now.

“I always say I feel as though Palace have the best fans. They add a lot to our games, and when we are under the cosh, hearing them cheer us on, it’s literally like a 12th man.”

PICTURE: ROB AVIS