Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira and Arsenal legend Ian Wright were both full of praise for Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher after his all-round performance against Manchester City.
The midfielder is enjoying an superb season so far on loan at Selhurst Park and did his parent club a big favour by scoring and assisting at the Etihad as Palace pulled off a shock 2-0 win.
Gallagher robbed Laporte of possession in the fifth minute before assisting Wilfried Zaha for the opening goal, while he netted with a ferocious strike late in th game to wrap up all three points.
As well as making an impact in the final third, Gallagher tracked back and worked tirelessly to harass and harry City’s players, with Wright singling out the player afterwards.
Speaking on Match of the Day about the midfielder’s involvement in the first goal, Wright said: ‘This is brilliant from Conor Gallagher, because he’s cutting off Laporte’s left foot, he wants him to go inside, bam! Pep’s saying they gave it away- no, Palace sucked them into that trap.
‘Again you look at Conor Gallagher, he goes into a position where we know that Man City like to play in that area, Bernardo Silva’s there, cuts it out again. And they did that all day, the plan was perfect. He was everywhere, he was doing everything.’
Palace boss Vieira was also asked about the display of both Gallagher and Zaha, saying after the match: ‘I think both of them, like the rest of the players, worked really hard.
‘We knew that coming to City we’re not going to have the possession, so we have to work really well as a team and we couldn’t allow ourselves to have one player not taking part in the defensive work.
‘I’m really pleased of course for Wilfried, for the goal that he scored, but I’m really pleased even more about how he worked with the rest of the team to make it difficult for City.’
Zaha was also full of praise for Gallagher and feels the Chelsea loanee’s arrival at the London club has provided the perfect foil for him.
Speaking after his goal against City, the Ivory Coast international said: ‘[Conor] brings a lot of energy. Obviously, playing up top I needed people to link up with. He gets up and down which makes a lot of difference, when he gets up and helps out.’
