Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha ‘gets treated quite unfairly’, according to teammate James McArthur.
On Saturday, the winger made a return from a groin injury to score a lovely winner against Huddersfield Town, but what shared the headlines with his hero showing was the treatment he got from the opponent, and referee Lee Mason.
Ten minutes before his matchwinner, Zaha was fouled by Mathias Jorgensen and a caution was issued as opposed to his teammates' clamours for a red card. The forward soon entered the referee's book after a foul on Florent Hadergjonaj.
Palace manager Roy Hodgson was, last season, wary of how being tagged a diver could influence decisions involving Zaha, and midfielder McArthur believes their star man is already suffering from such reputation.
“I think Wilfried gets treated quite unfairly, to be honest. He gets so many kicks – and because he gets so many kicks, he goes down,” McArthur, as per The Independent, said.
“People think he goes down too easily, but he doesn’t. If you look at the games, he gets kicked so much and tries to stay up to get an advantage and get away from his man.
“When I saw it [the tackle by Jorgensen], I thought it was a poor challenge. When Wilf then got his booking, it didn’t look to me that he had done too much wrong, but the crowd reacted.
“Wilf can’t make a challenge now. Any time he makes a challenge, the crowd get on him and put the referee under pressure. I feel sorry for him in that way.”
“Listen, he’s a tremendous talent and there’s no doubt when he’s in our team we are a better team, we’re more dangerous.
