Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha heaped praise on manager Patrick Vieira after a shock 2-0 victory over defending Premier League champions Manchester City.
Zaha opened the scoring in the sixth minute, becoming the first player to reach 50 goals in the Premier League for Palace, before Aymeric Laporte was sent off for bringing him down and Conor Gallagher wrapped up the points late on.
The unexpected win at the Etihad Stadium saw the Eagles end their run of four consecutive draws and rise to 13th in the table, and Zaha was quick to credit Vieira for the team's positive form.
Vieira ended his playing career at City and then began his coaching career with the north-west club, bossing the reserve team before moving on to sister club New York City FC. He had a spell with Nice and joined Palace in July of this year.
"I feel like we have had a threat [before] but the difference now is that we keep the ball from the back and build and make our chances," Zaha said after the game. "We are exploiting our talent.
"[Vieira] knows what he is talking about and we have all seen him do it. It's surreal because he was an amazing player. Every player is buying into it and slowly the results will come."
The Ivory Coast forward was pleased with how Palace disrupted City and revealed delight at his growing connection with on-loan Chelsea midfielder Gallagher.
"It was about getting in their faces and not letting them play," said Zaha, according to the BBC. "We know how good they are, we wanted to show them what we could do."
His goal was not a clean strike, as Zaha admitted.
"I scuffed it, but a goal is a goal," he said. "I was just buzzing to see it go in, so I was happy. Conor Gallagher brings a lot of energy and I needed people to link up with."
City defender Dias was downcast about the result and questioned whether Laporte's challenge on Zaha was worthy of a red card, with Leicester City's Jonny Evans shown only a yellow for a similar offence against Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang earlier in the day.
"The reaction is that we have a game in a short period of time and we are already thinking about it," Dias said. "Today we lost three very important points, but it is football. We are not happy but looking forward. Today we were not at our best, but even so the team fought and gave everything and it was not enough."
On the dismissal of Laporte, Dias said: "It was a little bit strange to see a red. I was walking back thinking it was a yellow. I never thought [the referee] would go for a red but we have to accept it."
We are not contenders – Aston Villa boss Unai Emery not getting carried away
Unai Emery insisted it was too soon to call his Aston Villa side Premier League title contenders after a 1-0 win over Manchester City lifted them above the defending champions and into third place.
Leon Bailey’s deflected strike in the 74th minute proved to be the winner as Villa equalled a club record with a 14th consecutive home victory.
Pep Guardiola said Villa could “definitely” be among those still in the fight come the end of the season but Emery insisted they still have much work to do to catch up with the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
“We are not contenders,” he said.
“There are seven teams who are contenders more than us. Now we are on game 15. We are going to play game 16 on Saturday against Arsenal and we are going to focus on it. We are happy to be third but to keep it is going to be very, very difficult.
“While we are there we are going to try to keep it. If we keep progressing during the season, playing matches and winning like we are doing maybe we can be a contender but I think we need more time.
“We can believe but we are not contenders. There are another seven teams and that didn’t change. It is game 15. Maybe by game 30 or 32, but not yet.”
The win gave Emery his first over Guardiola as a rival coach at the 14th attempt, 15 years to the day since they first came up against one another.
“Always I like to prepare matches against the best teams, the best players and the best coaches,” Emery said.
“When you are playing in a high level the opponents are of a high level. But beating him for me is not something special. It is really a process I am doing as a coach.”
Defeat left City winless in their last four league matches, down in fourth place and six points off the pace of leaders Arsenal.
Guardiola said the credit belonged to Villa on the night but admitted he had much to think about to get their title defence back on track.
“The better team won,” Guardiola said.
“Aston Villa was better than us. We struggled. It was really difficult. They are well organised, fast and physical players, they are able to control many aspects. That is the reason why they are up there. They played good football and we could not do it.
“It is my duty, it is my job to find a way to come back. Many years now we are together we found a way, we are able to find a way to win games, to find a way to do it.
“Now that we are struggling we have to change the dynamic, win as soon as possible, Luton, Crystal Palace, to change our mind and continue to win there.”
The absence of the suspended Rodri was again telling. This was the fourth match of the season the Spain midfielder has missed through a ban – and City have lost all four.
While there are other key players out – Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and of course Kevin De Bruyne – City’s reliance on their midfield holder is obvious.
“Without Rodri we could not win against Liverpool and Spurs, of course Rodri is so important but when Rodri is not there we have to find a way to do it,” Guardiola said.
“Today is simple, the better team won, you have to accept it. In football it happens. I said (to the players), ‘I know you tried, I know you want it, you have proven it to me many many times’.
“Now the results are not good, that’s why I have to see the games, reflect, and see how we try to do it.”
Roy Hodgson sends message to unhappy Crystal Palace fans after Bournemouth loss
Roy Hodgson pleaded for Crystal Palace supporters to stay onside after a 2-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth ended in a chorus of boos and an object being launched by a disgruntled fan in the boss’ direction.
Headers in each half from Marcos Senesi and Kieffer Moore extended the Cherries’ unbeaten Premier League run to four matches, while Palace remain in search of just their second home victory this season after a promising start to the campaign.
Palace, who dropped to 14th place with the loss, were hoping to pick up points ahead of a difficult run of fixtures, beginning with Liverpool on Saturday followed by a trip to Manchester City before meetings with Brighton and Chelsea.
Hodgson said he was unaware of being targeted by the projectile until after the fact, joking: “So you mean to say there was a fan out there who doesn’t like me? That will definitely stop me sleeping.”
The boyhood Palace fan also addressed earlier comments made to broadcaster Amazon Prime Video, in which he had suggested Eagles supporters might be “spoiled” by positive results in recent years.
He explained: “The fact is if I said that in the spur of the moment, to some extent there’s truth in it, yes.
“I mean we’ve punched above our weight for a number of years now. We’ve kept this team in the league for a number of years, but the fact is we are still in a situation where every game for us has got to be a fight. Every game for us has got to be street fighting.
“We need the fans of Crystal Palace as we know them, because without them it will become really, really hard for us, because the players need them, so I suppose my point, if I’m making a point at all, is don’t desert us because it’s a bad moment.
“We’re as sad as you are. We aren’t giving you what you want. If I say you’ve been spoiled, well, that’s pretty harsh. I mean, what is spoiled?
“But for me you have to remember that my relationship with the club is basically a fourth division club, a third division club, a Championship club. The first division of the football league when I was growing up was beyond my wildest dreams.
“Now it’s not. Now I think we are a bona-fide Premier League team. I think we’ve earned that right.”
Brendan Rodgers delighted as Oh Hyeon-gyu seizes Celtic chance
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised Oh Hyeon-gyu for seizing his chance after the South Korea striker hit a double in a 4-1 win over Hibernian.
Oh got the final touch as Celtic opened the scoring from a fifth-minute set-piece and he ran on to Callum McGregor’s ball down the channel, brushed off Will Fish and slotted home in the 55th minute, shortly before making way for Kyogo Furuhashi.
It was only the 22-year-old’s second start under Rodgers while the Celtic manager brought holding midfielder Tomoki Iwata and winger Mikey Johnston into his line-up for the first time.
After his side maintained their eight-point lead over Rangers in the cinch Premiership, Rodgers said: “I said this was a month where players would get a chance. Tommo came in and did really well, Oh was excellent.
“He was a really good reference for the team, his hold-up play, in the box he’s there and obviously his second goal shows he can also run in behind.
“Great strength and then really good composure. I was really pleased with him. He came into the game and did really well.
“Mikey has been better off the bench but he deserved his start because of the impact he has had. It’s just being more aggressive in his running but he deserved his start.
“Especially in this period of the season, you need to have freshness at the top end of the field in particular. Changing two out of the front three gave us that freshness.
“Kyogo can’t play every game but when you have someone like Oh who can come in and make an impact, it’s good.”
Rodgers also handed Cameron Carter-Vickers a rest in the second half after the defender reported a minor hamstring issue, while Greg Taylor came off after playing through illness.
The champions also netted through Matt O’Riley’s header and Luis Palma’s penalty but Hibs deserved some reward for their enterprising play and got it when substitute Christian Doidge netted from close range.
Hibs head coach Nick Montgomery had some frustration over referee John Beaton’s VAR-assisted penalty award for Lewis Stevenson’s challenge on Alistair Johnston.
“I said to the boys at half-time, both the goals were really avoidable,” he said. “I think we probably had the two best chances of the first half, two one-on-ones, two big saves from Joe Hart.
“Second half we started quite brightly and for me it’s a soft penalty. The crowd shout for it and he goes to the VAR and he looks at it in slow motion.
“We have probably had five or six of those incidents in my time at the club and we have never had a penalty. It never goes to VAR.
“The player that went down didn’t think it was a penalty, he said that to the boys.
“If we are going to go to VAR and have a look at every incident, there’s going to be a lot more free-kicks, a lot more cards, a lot more penalties, because when you slow everything down there is always some element where you could change your decision.
“Three-nil away at Celtic, two soft goals and a penalty, and we didn’t take our chances, so it’s an uphill task.
“But I was really proud of the effort, the way we played. The boys were brave and we had some really good passages of play.”
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