Patrick Vieira explains how he set Crystal Palace up to beat Aston Villa
Aston Villa suffered their second defeat of the season on Saturday (20 August) as Crystal Palace ran out 3-1 winners at Selhurst Park.
The Villans burst out of the traps like a greyhound as Ollie Watkins put them in front after just five minutes but things quickly went south for Steven Gerrard as Wilfried Zaha equalised two minutes later.
Zaha then completed the turnaround in the second half by converting a rebound from his own penalty before Jean-Philippe Mateta doubled the hosts’ lead late on.
Palace manager Patrick Vieira revealed after the game how he went about dismantling Gerrard’s travelling Villa side and securing their first home win of the season.
“We wanted to move the ball quickly and create two-vs-one situations,” Vieira said, as quoted by Ashley Preece on Twitter. “Eze and Wilfried really enjoy playing together. I think [Villa] wanted [Zaha] to lose his head but he used that fire really well today. I didn’t see [Digne handball].”
Homesick
That is now two away defeats on either side of victory on home soil and even if that formula would keep Aston Villa up this season, it won’t see them get anywhere near the top-half finish they should be aiming for.
Villa Park is going to have to be the most solid fortress the Premier League has ever seen if the performances on the road are going to be so abject.
It is concerning that Vieira could come up with such a simple plan to nullify Gerrard’s tactics and then exploit them and the boss did nothing to change what his side was doing.
If he is to have any future as a top-level manager, then he has to figure out a way for his side to play different systems and tempos because he will get found out and picked apart if not.
It is still early days though and there will be easier trips than Selhurst Park this season.
In other Aston Villa news, this Villa Park outcast is now a transfer target in Turkey and a deal could be getting very close indeed.