Roy Hodgson pays tribute to Wilfried Zaha after Crystal Palace beat Chelsea

Roy Hodgson paid tribute to Wilfried Zaha's "incredible qualities" after the forward's match-winning performance for Crystal Palace against Chelsea.

Zaha, making his first appearance since suffering a knee injury against Huddersfield on the opening weekend of the season, scored the winner in Palace's 2-1 victory at Selhurst Park.

The result ended a seven-match losing run for the Eagles, who scored their first goal for 731 minutes of Premier League football when Cesar Azpilicueta turned the ball into his own net in the 11th minute.

Tiemoue Bakayoko levelled for the defending champions but Zaha popped up to finish smartly past Thibaut Courtois on the stroke of half-time.

Zaha drew praise from Hodgson for his performance in the absence of regular front-man Christian Benteke, in particular for his work-rate in hassling Chelsea's defence.

"Him [Zaha] and Andros Townsend combined extremely well throughout the game," Hodgson said. "Wilf's pace and his desire to go past people with and without the ball, those are incredible qualities.

"All of us coaches want centre-forwards that can do that and I was most impressed that he played 97 minutes - if you include the stoppage time - and yet still he was running at the end.

"He chased a pretty-hopeless-looking ball at the end and we got something from it. That meant we kept the ball in their half of the field and those are the things you really appreciate as a coach.

"They don't always get noticed but he will get plenty of pats on the back from me."

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Palace had suffered seven consecutive league defeats before Saturday's victory, a run that included one-sided losses to Huddersfield, Manchester United and Manchester City.

Hodgson, who now has his first league win as Palace boss, added: "We have taken a couple of heavy defeats but even in those games there were moments when it maybe wasn't quite as bleak as the scoreline made it look.

"We have been building on those things and making sure the players realise we don't need to try to survive by playing with 11 behind the ball and kicking it into the stand every time we get a touch.

"We can actually play football because we have some quality footballers. You can't survive in leagues by defending alone."

On the overall performance, Hodgson said: "It was really enjoyable. I have just told the players they really deserve to drink in that victory, we were playing the champions of England, a team with fantastic quality.

"I thought we came off the field deserving our victory, we created lots of chances and I thought our defending was good from the first minute.

"We understand the Chelsea players have been away on international duty a bit more than ours but still to put in that type of whole-hearted performance - the chasing back, the recovery of position, the determination to win the ball and then to put our foot on the ball a little bit - I think we deserve credit too."

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