Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira’s verdict on ‘lack of goals’ ahead of Brighton and Hove Albion

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira is seeing the pressure valves turn on him as his team suffered a narrow defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

The Eagles have the least goals scored from open play this season with nine- and are still waiting for their first league win of the year despite being 12th on the table.

They were unlucky not to have won against Liverpool, coming off with a draw despite creating the best opportunities before defeats to Aston Villa away, and another to Premier League Champions Manchester City.

The Eagles have also failed to record a short on target in their last three games and reports say the Palace board is concerned by the recent slump in form.

Manager Patrick Vieira asked what he made of the fact that his team failed again to get going attacking wise, the former OGC Nice boss admitted it was his job to fix the team ahead of games against Brighton and Arsenal.

He said: “A shot on target – you can read it the way you want.

“What is important is to score goals. If you take the ball from the halfway line and shoot at goal, if you count that as a shot on goal, it doesn’t make sense.

“What is important is that we have to score goals and create more chances. Overall, we have to play in a better way in possession to create those chances.

“I have to find better combinations for players to combine better. This is my responsibility. Vicente Guaita made three saves to keep the South Londoners in the game.

“Vince has been fantastic,” said Vieira of the Spanish shot stopper. Since I’ve been at this football club, he’s been really consistent in his performance and he was excellent today.

“All the 10 outfield players were really good. We needed to be at our best to stop City from scoring goals and creating situations.”

Patrick Vieira will hope that he’s able to pick his team up for the rivalry game against Brighton in mid-week when they travel to the Amex.