August 14 2018

Aaron Wan-Bissaka

Wilfried Zaha has revealed one of his toughest opponents – Crystal Palace teammate Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

The skilful Zaha has come up against a number of quality players in the Premier League, but it's on the training pitch where Zaha has his biggest battles.

"I don’t think I have seen anyone get the better of Aaron," said Zaha. "In training, 50-50s, you know you are not going to win it with him, so it’s nice to have him on our team.

"I will admit he is a hard defender to play against because he somehow manages to toe everything away. When I trained against him, at first I thought, 'Yeah he is a decent defender'. But you can see that for yourself now."

Wan-Bissaka, 20, marked an excellent performance in Palace's 2-0 win over Fulham on Saturday by keeping danger man Ryan Sessegnon quiet throughout the game and also assisting Zaha for his goal.

The young right back fought off a rough challenge from Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic before carrying the ball up field and feeding a grateful Zaha the perfect pass.

"For the second goal, he’s won the ball, fell over, got up, fell over, and ran forward – I was just literally waiting for him to get control of the ball," added Zaha.

Eagles manager Roy Hodgson also praised Wan-Bissaka: "I thought he was excellent, both defensively and offensively. One can only hope that he will go from strength to strength.

"Playing his eighth game in the opening game of the season in a fantastic atmosphere against a team that has just come up, and a player in Ryan Sessegnon who has had a wonderful season and is obviously a bit of a flier.

"So to do what he did today, he will sleep well tonight and if you [in the media] are going to give him a few pats on the back, I am more than happy to add my voice in the praise, because I thought he did very well."