Vieira praises ‘calm’ Crystal Palace star Zaha following ‘strange comment’ from Leeds midfielder Phillips

Patrick Vieira has defended Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha after Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips accused him of diving.

Palace and Leeds fought out a physical 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park on Monday evening. Zaha was the most fouled player on the pitch.

Phillips later told BBC 5 Live Sport that referee Darren England complained to Leeds’ players over their treatment of Zaha. The England international later suggested that Zaha “dives a lot”.

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But Palace manager Vieira, speaking ahead of his side’s Premier League trip to Southampton on Saturday, responded to Phillips’ contention by saying: “It’s quite a strange comment I would say.

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“You can watch the game again. Some of them were quite lucky not to get a yellow card because I think their plan was clear, it was to target Wilfried.

“Wilfried remained calm and concentrated on his game and he had a really good game.

“This is the way he plays the game. He’s really good on the ball, he holds the ball, he fights for it and he’s a really good dribbler.

“When you have those qualities you have to look at the other side’s players who try to stop you and you have to accept it.

“I think Wilfried showed a lot of maturity during that game. He was really close to scoring that goal and overall I think he had a really good performance.”

Having lost successive away games at Leicester and Newcastle, Palace have taken only one