Crystal Palace 2-0 Wolves: Heroes, villains and player ratings as Patrick Vieira’s side win at Selhurst

Wilfred Zaha and Conor Gallagher scored the goals to seal three points for Crystal Palace, and maintain an unbeaten start to the season at Selhurst Park.

Vieira’s side are now unbeaten in their last six games and gathering momentum.

Against Wolves, they were dominant and deserved the clean sheet that came along with the points.

They have now won three, lost twice and drawn six of their first 11 games of the season.

The Eagles are ninth in the league table going into the November international break.

What Patrick Vieira said after the game

Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira said: “It was a really important win for us and a really good team performance against a difficult team.

“It was hard for us create chances and Wilfried and Conor were important for us, and I was pleased with all everyone did in the end.”

Heroes

Conor Gallagher

Another brilliant display and a goal to crown it off. Crystal Palace are playing beautiful football and much of that is down to this man.

Four goals and two assists to show for it and every goal has been key to Patrick Vieira’s side.

His energy and skill is probably second to none in the team at the moment.

The downside to everything he is doing at the moment is that Chelsea, his parent club, might price him out of reach if he continues playing as well as he is now.

He is a brilliant footballer who is gifted and a grafter and playing like his idol Frank Lampard.

Wilfried Zaha

Zaha ccored the first goal here, his 51st in a Palace shirt, and never stopped causing havoc and terrorising the Wolves defence.

When Vieira first arrived, there were doubts if Zaha would be the best fit for the possession based football he was introducing.

But 11 games into the season the answer is an affirmative yes.

He’s scored goals and created numerous goal scoring opportunities in this exciting Crystal Palace team, but the most impressive thing is that he is playing with a smile on his face.

Wolves came into this game having won four of their last five games, but they were second best for almost the entire game and Zaha was a key part of that.

Villains

Odsonne Edouard

The French forward has been a smart signing and proved with his debut brace against Tottenham but today, he looked laboured and wasted half chances.

There is an argument being made that he should be played through the middle, but Benteke’s height and aerial prowess gives the Palace attack and defence a good balance when defending or attacking set pieces.

Clearly a man full of potential and will score a lot of goals at this level, but today he looked a yard off.

Joel Ward

Ward could have caused a penalty, but for the intervention of VAR.

Often so dependable, Ward looked slightly off it today and did not overlap as much as his manager Patrick Vieira would have liked.

Probably very harsh to include him in here as a villain, but most of his teammates were outstanding and almost faultless.

Has been magnificent throughout the season and this could easily be a one off.

Team Ratings

Vicente Guaita 6

Joel Ward 5.5

Joachim Andersen 7

Marc Guehi 7.5

Tyrick Mitchell 6.5

Conor Gallagher 8

Cheikhou Kouyate 6.5

James McArthur 7

Wilfried Zaha 8

Christian Benteke 6.5

Odsonne Edouard 6