Crystal Palace appear doomed to be a side that cannot win a game unless Wilfried Zaha wins it for them

It is difficult to imagine survival for a club that relies so much on one young man, however talented that young man may be

Wilfried Zaha is Crystal Palace's shining light but can only do so much (Getty)

You could be forgiven for thinking that the biggest, most important moment during Tottenham’s victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday was the winning goal.

But while Heung-min Son’s exceptional strike - stretched outside the far post but whipped so viciously with his left foot that it curled inside to take a guided tour of the side netting – was decisive, Wilfried Zaha’s miss just minutes earlier felt more significant for what it said about this team.

Palace had put up a good fight, matching and possibly bettering a Spurs team tired out by a tough, tightly-packed fixture list and third-choice goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga had already come to their rescue a number of times. This time, though, he was slow off his mark and, rushing out of his penalty area, was rounded by Zaha.

The Ivorian is Crystal Palace’s most important player and still one of the Premier League’s most ignored. On his day, an unplayable whirling dervish of a winger who has saved this side more often than anyone else since bursting onto the scene as a skinny teenager whose oversized shirt billowed with excess polycotton.

But when it isn’t his day – and even that feels harsh when describing a game in which he was the most impressive attacking player – Palace can’t seem to win. Or even steal a point.

Last week’s final-breath equaliser against West Ham fairly predictably came from Zaha’s boot but as he rolled the ball wide of the net left vacant by Gazzaniga at Wembley, it felt like you knew what was coming.

With Crystal Palace’s disastrous summer transfer window, the club was left with just one fit senior striker and as soon as Christian Benteke went down with a knee injury the worst-case scenario that the club had dreaded was a reality. Zaha, injured for a month, was to return as the only possible saviour.

For all their talent, the likes of Andros Townsend and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have not yet proven themselves as consistent match-winners for this club while Zaha has almost exclusively been that. Criticised for a lack of finishing product over the years, those lapses have by and large evaporated, still forming the lazy narrative of many but divorced from reality, where he has become a constant game-breaking threat.


 Zaha missed Palace's golden chance at Wembley as they fell to another defeat 
 (Getty)

But as Zaha lamented at Manchester United, where small mistakes were projected large by the magnifying glass of a superclub, “I’m not perfect.”

If he were, and had converted all his chances, then Palace would be in touch with safety. Even as it is, they aren’t as far away as that dreadful opening run of defeats has made them feel.

Yet it feels like a fundamental problem that will be hard to shake. Palace are a side that cannot win currently unless Zaha wins the game for them. Which is why as soon as that huge chance screwed wide of the Wembley goal, and the 24-year-old screamed in anguish, it felt obvious what was coming.

Benteke’s return can’t come soon enough. Until then, it is difficult to imagine survival for a club that relies so much on one young man, however talented that young man may be.