• e-mail

It is about time we talked about Crystal Palace. When they deservedly won at Manchester City last weekend, most of the post-match chatter was about the champions’ woes.

‘We need to talk about Kevin,’ read one headline after a disastrous display from the usually brilliant De Bruyne. Now we need to talk about Patrick.

New boss Vieira has Palace within touching distance of the European spots in the table. And they could be even higher — four draws came before these back-to-back wins, two of which saw them concede very late equalisers.

Crystal Palace brought an end to Wolves' five-game unbeaten streak at Selhurst Park

Zaha was slipped through before finishing neatly past Jose Sa in the Wolves net

But now performances are being turned into results. They are solid at the back and threatening with the ball.

But Vieira’s biggest legacy so far is that they are now much more than a one-man band reliant on Zaha.

In the last four seasons, Zaha missed 21 League matches. They won just three of those. Their average goals per game was 1.2 with him, 0.4 without.

When Zaha plays, Palace are much better for it. That has not changed. He scored the opener as they fought past a stubborn Wolves side.

Conor Gallagher (right) was then on hand to smash the ball into the net to double the lead

But as was the case in Manchester seven days earlier, the supreme talent of Conor Gallagher won the match. He added a late second to put the game to bed, just as Wolves looked better.

The plan of ‘get the ball to Zaha and hope for the best’ is a thing of the past and the Ivorian seems better for it, too — this the first time he’s scored in consecutive games for over a year.

Gallagher was the name on the fans’ lips, though. ‘Sign him up’ they chanted about the Chelsea loanee.

As for Wolves, where was the attacking prowess they showed in playing Everton off the park on Monday? A positive is the talent of defender Max Kilman. If he continues to progress, Conor Coady might not be the only Wolves man in the England squad. But neither he nor Coady could keep out Vieira’s talented side for 90 minutes.

Zaha is still the lead singer but now he has a few bandmates to share the load with him.