There is a reason fans claim Wilfried Zaha is a diver - they are scared of him

I am so bored of the Wilfried Zaha diving debate.

Bored because it isn’t even a debate. There are far more important and pressing things in football to discuss; like safe standing, terrible refereeing and VAR.

Zaha diving is such a non-starter. The Crystal Palace winger does go down a lot but that’s because he get’s fouled. A lot.

He has been the most fouled player in the Premier League since the start of 2015/16, getting taken out 282 times according to Opta, some way clear of next fouled Eden Hazard (on 247).

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And when a Premier League player is running at speed and is clipped, momentum is always going to make them go down. As Zaha explained to Palace TV this month: “Some of these pens that are not given, anywhere else on the pitch that’s a foul but I don’t really get involved in that anymore, if you give me a pen great if you don’t I just play on really.

“I’d love to actually show someone if you sprint and I just literally touch the back of your ankle, see how far you go sliding on the pitch, that’s the thing that people don’t understand.”

That total also doesn’t include the multitude of times he has been denied a foul; in or outside the box. Saturday’s 0-0 draw for Palace at Watford was a case in point with Zaha going down in the box twice, getting nothing, except a yellow card for simulation for the second one.

Replays show his shirt was pulled in the first instance and that he was 100% clipped by Adrian Mariappa in the second; with the Hornets defender even admitting to Zaha after the game it was a penalty.

And yet Chris Kavanagh’s terrible decision to book Zaha for diving only adds fuel to the fire of a totally unwarranted, but not un-earned reputation. And I say un-earned because some opposition managers have been very clever in repeating the line that Zaha dives to put doubt in the minds of fans and officials.

In December Eddie Howe asked Premier League officials to re-look at two penalties Zaha won against his Bournemouth side at Selhurst Park, despite replays showing both were justified. When asked about those comments in the reverse fixture at the Vitality Stadium in April he had conveniently “forgotten” about them.

But there is a reason the likes of Howe, Watford fans and others love to label Zaha a dive and boo him from the stands; it’s because they are scared of him.

It reminds me a bit of when Cristiano Ronaldo was improving at Manchester United and everyone was moaning about him diving and calling him a fraud but a few years later when he had moved to Real Madrid and won everything it was clear that actually, he was just really, really good.

Everyone knows Zaha is the best player outside the Top 6 and most fans of other non-Top 6 sides are frustrated and confused as to how a team like Palace can hang onto a player like that.

The reason is people outside Palace don’t get Zaha and he doesn’t get them. He went to Old Trafford at a young age and it just didn’t work out. Maybe it was the wrong time or just the wrong man in the wrong place. But at Selhurst Park he is at his spiritual (and literal) home.

“The thing about Palace fans is that they are welcoming,” Zaha told Sky Sports. “I knew I could always go back there because when I left [for Manchester United in 2013], it was a move you can’t really say no to. But even when I went to United, I wanted to come back on loan and finish the season. I think they appreciated that but not all fans appreciate those types of things. They understand football.”

With the TV money that top flight teams have access to now, it means teams like Palace can keep hold of their prize assets. Zaha probably wouldn’t earn much more at bigger clubs, but he would lose that divine right to play each week. Nowhere else would he be such a focal point of a team.

And he knows that deep down. He’s only 25 but it nearing 300 appearances for the Eagles and if they finally kick on next season he could end up being their Matt Le Tissier.

He added: “I don’t let the other stuff sway me because there’s no point. I’m happy right now to be honest. I get crazy support every week from the Palace fans home and away. I’m playing and I’m enjoying my football. There’s no reason not to be happy, really.”