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Patrick Vieira pleased with Crystal Palace ‘statement’ in win over Man City
Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has described his side’s win away at Manchester City on Saturday as a “statement”.
Palace’s impressive run of form under the Frenchman’s stewardship continued with a 2-0 victory in the home of the champions with both Wilfried Zaha and the excellent Conor Gallagher scoring.
While Pep Guardiola lamented the “many, many things” that went wrong for his side, the result speaks to the kind of progression Palace are making under their new manager, an appointment that looked potentially risky when Lucien Favre had pulled of talks to replace Roy Hodgson.
Speaking to the club’s in-house TV channel after the game, Vieira admitted the flow of the game was “stressful” but was pleased especially pleased with the “character’ and “resilience” his players showed.
“We were really pleased with the way we played in the last couple of games, but we weren’t happy with the goals we conceded,” he said (via the club’s official website).
“Today, we were concentrated from the start until the end. Coming to Manchester City and not conceding a goal is a really strong statement, and is really good for the team.
“It was really stressful, but at the same time we knew any game against Man City would be challenging. But today we showed character, resilience, and I’m really pleased for the players, because on the field they gave everything.
The Palace boss also spoke of the difficulty in leaving Christian Benteke out of the starting XL. The Belgian forward, who has unlucky not to have added a second to his goal against Newcastle United last week, was named as a substitute before coming on to replace Jordan Ayew after the hour mark.
“I made some tough decisions – leaving Christian out of the starting XI was really difficult because the last two games I think he was fantastic.
“This shows as well the group of players that we have. It’s a good win, and everybody was really pleased and really happy. But we still need to work on some parts of the game that we can improve a lot.”
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