Patrick Vieira saw different attributes in his Crystal Palace team in 2-0 win at Manchester City

Patrick Vieira was pleased to discover another side to his Crystal Palace team as they defended resiliently to see off 10-men Manchester City.

The South Londoners took the lead just six minutes into the game at the Etihad, with Wilfried Zaha scoring his 50th top-flight goal for the club with a left-footed shot from inside the area.

Despite Pep Guardiola’s side being reduced to 10 men when last man Aymeric Laporte pulled down Zaha, City still posed a dangerous threat to the Eagles.

The home side had a total of 14 shots at goal during the 90 minutes, but an 88th-minute goal from Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher wrapped up all three points.

When asked if it was a relief to see out the victory following draws from winning positions against Newcastle, Arsenal and Brighton, Vieira said: “We knew that we were really close to winning football matches.

“Today we worked really well – we worked hard. When you come to a place like City, and you don’t concede a goal, and on the other side, you take your chances, it’s really good.

“I am really pleased because I saw a side of the team that I didn’t see before, and I am really happy that we showed that we are capable of defending well and defending well together.

“It’s really good when you come to a place like the Etihad, and you have a game plan, and you stick to it, and players do even more than what you planned. We had so many blocks – we stopped crosses. Every time they managed to do a cutback, there were players there.

“We made it really difficult for them, and we stuck together during the difficult period – that’s why we didn’t concede today. I really want to praise the personality and the work ethic of the team today.”

Vieira had called for his players to be more clinical in recent weeks, and his side took their chances against the champions, with the manager praising the work-rate of his forward players after the match.

“We talked a lot this week about the number of chances we have created, and we haven’t scored enough,” explained Vieira.

“We knew today that we were not going to create as much as we would have wanted to, but those couple that we were going to create were going to be important for us to take.

“Wilfried taking his chance was important for us, and after that, we defended really well – the back four had a terrific game.

“When you’re looking at Jordan or Edouard on the other side, coming to play the two against one, that’s because we knew their strength in the one against one. When you look at the way Wilfried worked up front, this is the spirit that we have at the moment in our football club.”