The Guardian
The first meeting between two of the greatest midfielders to have graced the Premier League in their new habitats as managers ended with a triumph that Steven Gerrard must have savoured.
Trailing to Matt Targett’s early goal and having delivered their worst performance since Patrick Vieira took over from Roy Hodgson in the summer, Crystal Palace were left frustrated by a stubborn rearguard effort from Aston Villa before John McGinn made sure of the points for the visitors late on. Marc Guéhi’s consolation goal arrived far too late for Palace.
The victory not only made it two in succession for their new manager since his arrival from Rangers but, as Gerrard acknowledged, can also provide a benchmark for the rest of the campaign as they inflicted Palace’s first home defeat of the season in his first away match before facing champions Manchester City on Wednesday.
“Our first-half performance was excellent and we knew we would have to roll our sleeves up in the second half,” he said. “It’s a fantastic away performance because this is a difficult place to come. We have to take confidence from this.”
Gerrard has spoken of his admiration for Vieira as a player, describing the former Arsenal captain as a “role model” and admitting to have based large parts of his game on the Frenchman. He also paid tribute to the start his old midfield rival has made to life as a Premier League manager that had seen Palace begin this game three points ahead of their opponents having only lost to Chelsea and Liverpool.
The absence of the outstanding Joachim Anderson from the heart of his defence due to a hamstring injury forced Vieira to hand James Tomkins a first league start of the season, with Michael Olise the other change from Palace’s draw with Burnley last week. Perhaps surprisingly, Gerrard opted to leave summer signings Emi Buendía and Danny Ings on the bench and selected Ashley Young and Leon Bailey to support Ollie Watkins…
