Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace relegation fight admission amid Leeds, Leicester and Wolves’ struggles

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira says last season’s sterling campaign was always going to heighten expectations this season even though he and his players have to keep fighting and competing.

The Eagles have only won three games in 11 attempts and are yet to take three points away from Selhurst with defeats to Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton that has hurt their start to the campaign. The performance against Everton and Leicester away has been particularly alarming and fans who saw their team push for a top 10 finish last time out are now bracing themselves for a possible relegation battle.

Asked if the campaign last season is affecting the way fans are viewing this one, Vieira said that could be a possibility even though he just needs to get on with being more ambitious and getting his team play football.

“Last year was a good season and we knew this year would be challenging for us. We never thought for one second this year would be an easy one. Look around at other teams and how they improve themselves. It’s always difficult to compare the performances from last year because the expectation from the outside is different.

“We know who we are and we want to perform game after game. Our ambition is to do well and finish as high as we can. Of course it’s challenging. Look at the no of points between 8 and 20. Winning games, taking points will have a massive point at the end of the season.”

This season the Palace faithful have sometimes expressed their frustrations when the team is not playing well and a few boos were heard around the stadium when they were a goal down against Leeds.

Vieira though admits it’s been frustrating that his team only comes alive after going down but promised he was working tirely to correct that.

He added: “Frustrating but it shows the character of the players. I would prefer to lead but that shows an area of the game we  need to improve, the way we are approaching the game. It’s something we discussed and there is maybe a different approach but it is always a concern to concede the first goal. When you look at the squad is really high.’