Patrick Vieira has claimed that West Ham created ‘not a lot’ of chances during their 3-2 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, as he told Match of the Day.
The former midfielder stated that his Palace side ‘shouldn’t have lost the game’ because he thinks his players were ‘better’ than West Ham at Selhurst Park.
Before Palace could go into the half-time break, they were 3-0 down, including Manuel Lanzini scoring a quite stunning effort from the edge of the box.
The home side did provide a scare to the Champions League-chasing Hammers by scoring two late goals, but it wasn’t enough for them to get anything from the game.
Despite the result and West Ham scoring three goals, Vieira made it clear who was the better team.
“I think we shouldn’t lose that game because we were the better team,” said Vieira.
“Even in the first half, we conceded three goals. But we created more chances. We created really good chances. We don’t take our chances.
“They create not a lot and they score three, so that shows as well the individual quality in their team.”
Vieira wasn’t a happy man after the full-time whistle and he vented his anger towards the referee and, as a result, he was booked.
But whilst the defeat would have been hard to take for Palace fans and Vieira, they are making big progress under his stewardship.
Going from a pragmatic style of play under Roy Hodgson, they are moving the ball quicker, keeping the ball a lot better and playing higher up the pitch.
Palace will continue to get indifferent results during this time and they will probably showcase their true self next season.
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