Wilfried Zaha decries racist abuse after win over Manchester City

Racism can be most simply understood as someone behaving differently to another person based on the colour of their skin or culture.

Some people are picked on because they look different or speak a different language.

Time after time English Premier League clubs have to sort the act of kneeling to show solidarity for campaigns against racism and to support calls for equality for black people in Britain and around the world, but with days this is slowly losing meaning.

Crystal Palace talisman Wilfred Zaha is the latest player to receive social media racist messages after Crystal palace won against defending champions Manchester City.

Wilfried Zaha scored the opening goal for Palace; Photo Credit – Football. London

Wilfried Zaha scored the opening goal for Crystal Palace in a 2-0 match-winning at Etihad stadium. He was also the man involved in Aymeric Laporte red card.

After the match, the Ivorian international took to social media- posting screenshots of the racist messages that he received on Instagram after the game and asked social media companies to take the problem seriously.

“This message isn’t for me to get a million messages saying we stand with you and it’s disgusting or about me getting sympathy,” Zaha posted on his Instagram story.

“I’m not here for all the nonsense that is being done instead of fixing the actual problem!

“I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse but my color will always be the real problem but it’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD!

“Speak to me when you actually take this issue serious.” He said.

City’s ten men down on two goals against Palace tried to get back into things but saw Gabriel Jesus’ equalizer ruled out for an earlier offside. And Palace confirmed a deserved win late on as Conor Gallagher scored a late second.

Conor Gallagher; Photo Credit – Pride of London

Speaking to BBC after the game Crystal Palace goalscorer Conor Gallagher said the visitors got some luck today but were also good value for a hard-fought win.

“It was brilliant honestly. What a feeling to finally get a bit of luck on our side even though we deserved it. To get three points against a team like that away is a great feeling. We can take confidence from that.

“To get a goal early on helped a lot because we had something to hold on to. To keep a clean sheet even though they were down to 10 men is still not easy with the players they have.

“I should not have even been in the box. The boss told me to sit in but I just had a feeling I could get a chance and thankfully I was able to finish it.

“We’ve been unlucky with results in the last few games. When you come to Manchester City you naturally defend more and work a little bit harder. We were brilliant defensively.

“I thought Wilf [Zaha] was through on goal and he [Laporte] had to be sent off.”