Patrick Vieira: Crystal Palace midfielder was a ‘different class’ against Liverpool

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira has hailed Eberechi Eze’s performance in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool as “different class.”

The Greenwich-born attacking midfielder grabbed his first assist of the 2022-23 season at Anfield on Monday night.

Playing left of a midfield five, Eze collected a Vicente Guaita clearance to set Palace away on the counter-attack.

He then dribbled past Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold before playing a defence-splitting pass through to Wilfried Zaha, who finished his effort with power past Alisson.

“Really, really pleased,” Vieira said to SkySports of Eze’s performance.

“I think that Eze in that action [his role for Zaha’s goal] showed his talent.

“People sometimes forget that he had been injured for quite a while last year, and he is getting to his best.

“What he needs now is to play games. Today, he was a different class.”

The Eagles picked up their first point of the season after a 2-0 loss on the opening day against Arsenal.

“When you’re looking at those two games, of course, playing against those two teams who are fighting to win the Premier League, it’s always going to be challenging,” added the Frenchman.

“But I’m more interested in the performances, and today we showed character, personality and discipline that will help us to win football matches.

“I believe that we are on the right path. We have to keep working well, and there is talent – we have Michael Olise coming back from injury and players who can make the difference.

“We have to keep working well like we did tonight.”