



When it came it was actually rather innocuous. The Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita had collected at his near post and flung the ball up-field to a retreating Wilfried Zaha, just inside the centre circle. There was an inevitability to the contact from the Watford defender Kiko Femenia, and the Ivory Coast forward duly crumpled to the turf to the shrill of Martin Atkinson’s whistle. As the teams took their positions for the resultant free-kick, all those on the pitch would have been oblivious that this had been the 500th time that Zaha has been fouled — pushed, tripped, clipped or shoved — in his top-flight career. A milestone of sorts.



It all began six years ago to the day, when Mathieu Debuchy shoved Zaha in the back less than 10 minutes into his Premier League debut during Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat against Newcastle United. Since then only one player has been fouled on more occasions, and that player is no longer in England.