Patrick Vieira seen for the first time since brutal Crystal Palace sacking and former boss is all smiles

Ex-Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira dusted himself off and had dinner with some of his former Arsenal teammates in London on Tuesday night.

The 46-year-old Vieira was sacked last week by Palace chairman Steve Parish after a spell of 12 games without a win and with reports that he’d fallen out with some players in the dressing room.

Roy Hodgson, the man he took over from, has been brought in to keep the team in the Premier League even though some fans think it’s a huge gamble to replace Vieira with just 10 games to end the season.

But on Tuesday evening Vieira was seen in a restaurant flanked by some members of the Arsenal invincible side of 2004 and Ian Wright. The Match of the Day presenter would later post it on his Twitter handle.

Meanwhile Palace are preparing to take on Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday, the first game under Roy and they’ll hope to hit the ground running.

The Eagles are two points ahead of the Foxes but both sides are in desperate need of the points to distance themselves from relegation.

Palace have been boosted by news that goalkeeper Vicente Guaita who missed the last two games due to injury is back in training and could be fit for the clash at Selhurst this weekend.

Joachim Andersen who also seemed to be struggling with a calf problem is back in training and his availability provides the new manager options going into the crunch game on Saturday.