Palace 2-1 Villa: Wilf Zaha stared down Emi Martinez after scoring penalty rebound

Wilfried Zaha is enjoying a fine start to the 2022/23 season.

The Ivorian opened his account for the campaign during Crystal Palace‘s trip to Liverpool on Monday evening.

Zaha was played in by the marauding Eberechi Eze and then produced a finish worthy of Thierry Henry in his prime to make it 1-0.

When the former Manchester United forward is at the peak of his powers, he’s incredibly difficult to stop, as Aston Villa found out the hard way on Saturday afternoon.

Just two minutes after Ollie Watkins opened the scoring early on at Selhurst Park, Zaha bagged his second goal of the season.

It was another counterattack from Patrick Vieira’s quality-packed side, with their main man finishing cooly once again with his ‘weaker’ left foot.

Zaha!!pic.twitter.com/AGezExcBtH

Well played, Wilf. That strike saw him overtake fellow countryman Yaya Toure in the Premier League’s scoring charts, which is some achievement.

Zaha then moved further ahead and made it three goals in the English top-flight this season on 58 minutes, although there was certainly an element of luck involved.

Palace were awarded a penalty after VAR stepped in and declared that Villa defender Lucas Digne handled the ball inside the penalty area.

Zaha took responsibility from the spot as he always does, but was initially denied by a terrific save from Emi Martinez.

However, the Palace forward was on hand to gobble up the rebound and put his side 2-1 ahead.

And straight after doing so, he opted to celebrate by cockily staring down Martinez, who wasn’t best pleased with his the goalscorer’s actions.

Zaha vs Martinez