Christian Benteke scores as Palace earns 1st league win

The win was Alan Pardew’s first of the season and lifted the Eagles up to 12th spot in the Premier League table, while Boro drop to ninth.

Zaha capitalised on a terrible error by Boro full-back George Friend two minutes into the second half to clinch a deserved victory – just a third in 23 league games in 2016 for manager Alan Pardew – in front of a crowd of 30,551 at the Riverside Stadium.

Record signing Benteke, who joined the south London club from Liverpool in August, nodded Palace ahead on the quarter hour when he rose to meet Zaha’s cross at the far post and power a header beyond Valdes.

The manager added: “Not just the goal and the assist, but also his [Zaha’s] defensive performance against George Friend, who bombs up and down the line was exceptional”.

Boro boss Aitor Karanka said in his post-match press conference that “everyone could see it was handball”, referring to two separate incidents when the ball appeared to strike Scott Dann, and then Damien Delaney on the hand.

“So for that reason I don’t need to say anything, I just need to say we lost because of mistakes”.

It was Zaha’s 16th-minute cross which provided £27.5million new boy Christian Benteke with the chance to open his Palace account with a towering header, although the man he beat in the air to score, Daniel Ayala, made amends seven minutes before the break in equally imperious style from Stewart Downing’s corner.

“If we arrived today unbeaten, it’s because we played the first three games with an awesome intensity and today, especially in the first half, we didn’t play with that intensity”.

The pair linked up again soon after to engineer a chance for Andros Townsend, but this time the winger’s shot was turned away well by the ex-Barcelona star.

Zaha nearly left Friend standing on the right and found Benteke, who laid the ball off for Townsend to force a save from Valdes.

When it came after 38 minutes it was from a set-piece – and marked a dramatic change of fortune for Ayala. James McArthur slipped the ball inside Friend and Zaha brushed him off to fire home.

On the penalty claims, Pardew added: “These were like no intent, so I think it’s hard for the referee to call them”.