Wilfried Zaha scores twice as Watford thumped by Crystal Palace

The Eagles’ first victory of 2022 was already on course to be achieved with a degree of comfort - Palace playing with greater control, composure, organisation and quality for most of the contest - before Wilfried Zaha took centre stage in the closing stages with two late goals to make it a miserable reunion for Roy Hodgson and Ray Lewington against their former employers.

Palace struck first when a Jean-Philippe Mateta shot was deflected past the wrong-footed Ben Foster by Kiko Femenia, but it was the Spaniard whose corner led to a rapid-fire reply when Moussa Sissoko rose highest to head home his first Hornets goal.

Watford found themselves increasingly pegged back towards the end of the opening period, with the movement and rotation of the Eagles’ players causing problems, and it told when Conor Gallagher took down a Tyrick Mitchell cross with a superb first touch and sent the second beyond Foster.

Despite trailing at the break, the Hornets faithful hoped their side would attack the second half with greater vigour, but they struggled to ask any meaningful attacking questions of their opponents for the opening 20 minutes.

They briefly suggested an equaliser might be forthcoming, Emmanuel Dennis spurning the best opportunity, before Palace regained their superiority and rammed it home with Zaha’s brace in the final five minutes, the second coming in spectacular fashion.

Hodgson opted to keep faith with the same starting XI that ended Watford’s near four-month wait for a victory with a 1-0 win at Villa Park on Saturday.

The Hornets’ manager’s former club suffered a late 1-0 defeat at home to Chelsea at the weekend and Patrick Vieira made four changes to his team, one of which was enforced in goal with Vicente Guaita ruled out through injury. Jack Butland took his place and the other changes saw Vicarage Road old boy Will Hughes, Gallagher and Mateta come in for James McArthur, Jordan Ayew and Jeffrey Schlupp.

The Hornets started with a confidence to their work, looking to get on the ball and play at a decent tempo against a Palace side still seeking their first league win of this year.

It was the visitors who had the first opening in the eighth minute when Zaha whipped in a cross from the left which Hassane Kamara tried to guide back to Foster, only to miskick it, but he recovered just quickly enough to get to the ball ahead of Gallagher and put it behind.

The Hornets were not to escape the next time Palace had a purposeful attack in the 15th minute though.

A Michael Olise pass slipped in Gallagher down the right side of the penalty area, his pull back was deflected off Kamara to Mateta who had his back to goal, but he hit a shot on the turn early which deflected off Femenia to send it past the wrong-footed Foster to put the visitors in front.

It was a lead that was to last barely three minutes.

Watford responded positively to the setback by winning a corner which Femenia took from the right, sending the ball into the heart of the six-yard box with a blend of height, whip and pace and Sissoko got a run on his man to rise highest to thump a header past Butland to equalise.

The touchpaper had been lit, but having got back on terms the Hornets almost contrived to hand the advantage back immediately when a mistake let Mateta get a run at the heart of the defence, but Craig Cathcart got back well to dispossess the Eagles striker.

The next opportunity came Watford’s way when a Sissoko cross from the right was headed over by Emmanuel Dennis who, if anything, got up a little too early and mistimed his effort.

Following a delay in play while Cheikhou Kouyate received treatment after landing awkwardly, a dummy by Zaha gave Mitchell the chance to advance forward from left-back but his shot cleared the bar by a distance.

The rotation amongst Palace’s forward players was giving the Hornets problems though, and in the 37th minute Zaha received the ball in the D and slipped the ball to his right where Olise was able to squeeze in a shot which Foster did well to block with his legs.

Samir picked up the first booking of the night two minutes later for hauling down Mateta; the Brazilian then doing well to get in front of the striker to head behind Mitchell’s volleyed delivery.

But Palace’s pressure was to tell two minutes before the break when the visitors capitalised on some lax Hornets defending.

An almost identical cross from Mitchell was the supply route but this time a superb touch from Gallagher took Kamara out of the game and the Chelsea loanee calmly lifted a right-footed finish beyond Foster to make it 2-1.

The Hornets left-back though, had good reason to ask why he was left to try and mark two Palace players without any team-mate getting back to help.

The card count was levelled up in the last minute of the half when Kouyate saw yellow for a foul on Imran Louza as Palace took a one-goal advantage into the break.

Hodgson made the game’s first change in the 51st minute when Cucho Hernandez replaced Joshua King, who looked like he may have sustained an injury problem.

Within moments though, the Hornets were almost unpicked when a pass sent Mateta away between Femenia and Cathcart, but the Eagles striker chose to try and pick out Olise on the right-hand side of the box rather than go for goal himself and the ball went behind.

Watford struggled to lay a glove on their opponents in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, with Palace dominating possession with a composure their hosts lacked.

Femenia was booked just past the hour-mark for pulling back Zaha but the Hornets were finding it difficult to create anything until the 65th minute when Louza clipped a free-kick into the penalty area, Cathcart headed on, but a stretching Dennis prodded wide as he tried to steer the ball past Butland.

That did lead to the Hornets starting to get more time on the ball and ask some questions; Dennis putting a good opportunity high and wide after the ball had played back into the box from a corner which came after a Sissoko header from another corner had been diverted over.

Both managers made a change in the 73rd minute, with Ayew replacing Olise before Edo Kayembe came on for Tom Cleverley.

Hughes’ return to Vicarage Road ended ten minutes from the end of normal time when he was replaced by McArthur, as the home side continued to huff and puff in search of the equaliser.

And their hopes were to end in the 85th minute when a patient Palace build-up ended with Ayew crossing from the right and Zaha bringing down the ball at the far post, briefly weighing up his options as Femenia tried to guess what was coming next before he fired a shot past Foster to make it 3-1.

Palace – and Zaha in particular – were not finished though and when the visitors broke out from defence and McArthur played the ball out to the left, the Palace winger toyed with Sissoko and Femenia before unleashing a thunderous right-footed curling effort inside Foster’s far post for the fourth.

The news that Burnley had beaten Tottenham Hotspur only added to the sense of despondency at full-time, with Watford still four points from safety ahead of a trip to Manchester United on Saturday.

Watford: Foster; Femenia, Cathcart, Samir, Kamara; Sissoko, Louza, Cleverley (Kayembe 73); Sarr, King (Hernandez 51), Dennis. Subs not used: Bachmann, Ngakia, Troost-Ekong, Masina, Sema, Kabasele, Kalu.

Crystal Palace: Butland; Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Kouyate, Hughes (McArthur 80); Olise (Ayew 73), Gallagher, Zaha; Mateta (Edouard 90). Subs not used: Matthews, Milivojevic, Eze, Schlupp, Benteke, Kelly.

Bookings: Samir for a foul on Mateta (39); Kouyate for a foul on Louza (44); Femenia for a foul on Zaha (61).

Referee: Andre Marriner.