Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha has described his teammate Eberechi Eze as "a quality and tricky player" after the Nigerian descent helped him score a brace in their 5-1 win over West Bromwich Albion.
Zaha returned to the Eagles' starting XI on Sunday, after recovering from coronavirus which kept him out of action for two weeks, and his return came as a boost for the visitors at the Hawthorns.
The Ivory Coast star fired Crystal Palace ahead in the second half after Conor Gallagher cancelled out Darnell Furlong's own goal for Crystal Palace in the first 45 minutes.
After a while, Eze did a brilliant job to split the West Brom defence but the ball stopped at Zaha’s feet and he slotted home his second goal in the 68th minute.
Speaking after the match, Zaha expressed excitement with the connection he has formed with Eze, who has provided two assists and a goal to his name since his summer-signing from QPR.
"[Eze] is a quality player, he literally glides through people,” he told the club website.
“It’s nice [having] someone on your wavelength and that’s a tricky player as well because I know half of the stuff he’s going to do so I just position myself to get the ball. It’s been a joy."
Zaha was also full of praise for Christian Benteke, who scored two second-half goals in the fixture to seal all three points for the Eagles.
He added: "Chris is as good as he always is really but I feel like everyone’s making noise because he managed to score. So I’m happy for him. He’s worked hard, managed to get his opportunity and he took it today.”
In Zaha’s absence, Crystal Palace failed to win a Premier League game - losing 1-0 to Burnley and 2-0 to Newcastle United.
Sunday's result came as a relief for the 28-year-old as the Eagles bagged an emphatic away victory which moved them up to 11th on the league table with 16 points from 11 games.
"I’m very happy, man. I’m always happy when the team’s winning and obviously I can add some goals as well. A good day in all," Zaha said.
"Obviously it wasn’t nice staying at home away from the team, especially those two games I feel I could have helped. But I’m buzzing to be back and the team’s winning - that’s all I care about!"