But did he? No doubt he had input into signing Mateta permanently but his original loan and the purchase of Edouard were probably down to Freedman

Fair point, but he seems to favour Mateta over the other two, its a Yoyah Wilcock to me

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Ayew isn't good enough in front of goal, clearly.

However, I found him coming off yesterday bizarre. Alonso was clearly brought on to get forward and provide a threat that Sarr doesn't and we're famously poor at defending crosses.

We bring on Eze, Alonso doesn't get closed down, we concede from his cross. Ayew definitely has a place in this team and the last 15 minutes of that game yesterday is one of those times. If we want to bring on Eze, fine, but it has to be Zaha or Olise making way in that situation.

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Can you explain therefore why PV thought it a wise move to weaken that side by taking Ayew off and bringing non covering non tackling Eze on?

I thought Ayew was a bit laboured in his defensive work yesterday, but he worked hard going forward and helped get us up the pitch. The issue is once he reaches the 18-yard box he carries almost no threat anymore. It's like Joelinton at Newcastle, both players who are classified as strikers but seemingly can't shoot, but who will work hard, have good control and are hard to shake off the ball. Teams need hard workers, but against the likes of Watford and Burnley we really need players who either score or assist and Ayew just isn't doing that.

I like Palace under Vieira, but my one criticism is his constant rotation of the striker. Every man and his dog knows goal scoring is all about confidence, but that's very hard to build up when you're constantly in and out of the team. Personally I think Edouard should be given five or six games on the trot in the central striker role, with Mateta coming in off the bench at the end. Edouard works hard, is quick and has a good conversion rate. Whomever starts there though needs more service.

He's been looking good there too, although he still can't hit a barn door (missing another chance yesterday).