All eyes will be on Wilfried Zaha as Crystal Palace welcome Newcastle United to Selhurst Park in this weekend’s Premier League clash.
Wilfried Zaha certainly raised eyebrows after Crystal Palace’s 1-0 win against Huddersfield Town last weekend.
After scoring a stunning winning goal at the John Smith’ Stadium, the Ivorian seemed in no mood to celebrate and took aim at referees for what he perceived to be a failure to protect him from savage challenges on the football pitch.
Zaha has certainly been on the rough end of some rather meaty tackles of late, and all eyes will be on Andre Mariner as he takes charge of Palace’s clash with Newcastle United at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
But it seems that Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez was far from impressed by Zaha’s claims.
“I am surprised. The FA normally deal with these comments,” Benitez told the Chronicle.
“No chance will it affect our players. Normally Zaha will receive more tackles than others because he is a great player and he runs at people.
“A player with pace and ability is exposed to these things, but referees need to protect all players during games.”
Newcastle will certainly have to be up for it to stop Zaha in the capital. The former Manchester United forward is undoubtedly Palace’s best chance of getting three points and consigning the Magpies to five defeats from six Premier League games.
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