Wilfried Zaha has shown numerous times this season that he can be a dangerous player on the ball, as is perhaps best highlighted by the fact that he averages 4.6 dribbles per game.
Alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Adama Traore, that is the highest number of any player in the Premier League.
That indicates that he can give any full-back a problem, but the Crystal Palace talisman may have been given an added bit of help by West Ham United’s circumstances for their Boxing Day clash.
Ryan Fredericks will be unavailable to play for the Hammers, as he has been suspended after accumulating five yellow cards throughout the league season so far.
This means Palace’s Ivory Coast international will likely be coming directly up against 34-year-old Pablo Zabaleta.
Looking at his last league game offers an indication of the upper-hand Zaha will likely hold if the Argentinian plays, as he faced the third person on the aforementioned dribbles list: Newcastle United’s Allan Saint-Maximin.
Zabaleta simply couldn’t get near the Frenchman, failing to make a single tackle in the 72 minutes before he was taken off, despite Saint-Maximin completing five dribbles.
Did he really play for us?! No Palace fan has managed to name all of these obscure Eagles signings….
It was a sign of just how desperate things got at points when Felipe Anderson was the outfield player furthest back, so he could help out the veteran defender.
Zaha showed against Brighton & Hove Albion how effective he can be at creating space for himself when he cut across Martin Montoya to get onto his left foot on the outside before smashing the ball into the top corner.
It has to be said, that with Zabaleta being far from the quickest player around, Zaha could end up getting plenty of joy against him.
In other news, it has been confirmed that Palace will be missing a player over the Christmas period.
