Crystal Palace attacker Wilfried Zaha has englightened the public on the incident leading to replacing Ghana striker Jordan Ayew in retaking a missed penalty during Saturday’s Premier League triumph over Manchester United.
The Eagles have made it two away wins over Manchester United in a row as they registered a 3-1 triumph at Old Trafford, and taking three points for the second straight time in this term.
With Palace 1-0 up, Ayew won a penalty for his side and elected himself to take the resultant kick which was saved by goalkeeper David de Gea. Palace were, however, spared by a video assistant referee (VAR) decision which ordered for a retake of the kick, judging De Gea to have moved off his line before the kick was taken.
Surprisingly, Ayew did not step up for the retake, which was this time around expertly converted by Zaha.
“To be honest, I didn’t know [what was happening] but all I thought in my head is: ‘Now, I’ve got the opportunity to take this penalty and score.’ I’m just glad I managed to do it,” the Ivorian exclaimed after the game, as reported by his club’s official website.
“Obviously Jordan won it, and he asked me – he wanted to take it. I said: ‘No problem, go on and take it. You got the penalty, man, take it.’
‘He missed, so I thought: ‘Let me just make sure myself.’”
Ghana midfielder Jeffrey Schlupp set up Andros Townsend for Palace’s opener in the seventh minute before Zaha made it 2-0 from the spot.
Substitute Donny van de Beek halved the deficit for United with a strike on 80 minutes but Zaha, Palace’s captain of the day in the starting absence of Luka Milivojevic, found the back of the net again five minutes later to seal all three points for the away side.
“Obviously we know what they [United] can do but we wanted to impose ourselves on the game,” Zaha said.
“We’ve got so much pace and attacking threat in the team, we just wanted to utilise it from the beginning.”
“Being captain for the side today, especially at Old Trafford, I’m buzzing we managed to get the three points.
“I feel like we’ve got so much quality in the team, we just need to put it on the pitch. Before the game, I was telling the team: ‘Believe in yourselves. Don’t be scared to play your game.’ Obviously today we showed it and I’m not surprised by the two games we managed to win.”
Ayew is yet to find the back of the net in two games so far this season.
Last term, he finished as The Eagles top scorer with nine goals.
