Former Premier League hitman Darren Bent believes Wilfried Zaha ‘bullied’ Cedric Soares during Crystal Palace’s 3-0 thrashing of Arsenal on Monday night, speaking to talkSPORT (5 April, 9am).
When the Crystal Palace talisman is dipping into that Tardis-sized box of tricks midway through the first half, you know things are going to plan.
Zaha was playing party football as early as half an hour into one of Palace’s greatest performances of the Premier League era; Twisting, turning, shimmying and swivelling and, eventually, scoring.
Cedric Soares, Arsenal’s veteran right-back, travelled to Selhurst Park arguably in the best form of his Gunners career.
Not that you’d have guessed it, given the way the Portugal international was tossed from side to side like a mouse at the mercy of a sadistic tabby cat.
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“(Zaha) is one of those players that I call bullies,” says Bent, the Arsenal-supporting former Tottenham Hotspur striker.
“Because, once he knows he’s got the full-back, he knows he can do what we wants with him. He just toys with him.
“Cedric tried a couple of times to get tight to him, to make it difficult. But, in the end, he just knew; ‘I can’t get anywhere near him’.”
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After Jean-Philippe Mateta gave Crystal Palace the lead, and Jordan Ayew doubled the advantage following some calamitous defending from Gabriel Magalhaes and the frightful Nuno Tavares, Zaha won and then converted a penalty, the glacier cherry on top of a very tasty cake.
The Ivory Coast international has now scored ten Premier League goals this season. Find the net twice more in Palace’s final eight games and 2021/22 will be the most prolific campaign of Zaha’s entire career.
“We worked on what we were going to do all week,” Zaha, who very nearly joined the Gunners in the summer of 2019, tells Sky Sports.
“I think the quality we have, we’ve just got to impose ourselves in the games we play. It’s not about looking at the shirt badges, we’ve got quality in our team.
“(The win) is massive because it just shows the resilience the team has. Obviously in the past, we would score a goal and scramble. Now it shows that we can defend together, and we can attack together.
“It’s a massive confidence boost.”
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