What Patrick Vieira had to say about Newcastle United – and the club's transfer spend

Crystal Palace played out a third successive goalless draw with Eddie Howe's side at Selhu rst Park yesterday. Newcastle – who have spent more than £200million on players since a takeover in October 2021 – moved up to third in the Premier League after the game.

Howe, frustrated that his team hadn’t capitalised on a number of chances, said opponents are giving his team “more respect”, and “putting a lot of men behind the ball”, in his post-match press conference.

And Vieira was pleased with the defensive work of his players.

Reflecting on the game, Palace’s manager said: “Today was all about defending well, sticking together, working well on set-pieces, defending the second ball on the set-pieces, and making it really difficult for them.

"That side of the game, we did it really well. The other side is when we had the ball, we didn’t use it well enough to give them problems or create chances.”

Vieira was asked if Palace’s tactics were a reflection of how far Newcastle have come since the takeover.

“When you spend millions, you move faster to where you want to be, so, of course, they’re doing really well,” said Howe.

“They have a really strong team. That’s why I’m really pleased we managed to get a point. They are competing with the top three, top four, and the way they build a team is to be in the Champions League, so, for us, I’m really pleased with what we showed, and really pleased with the point that we took.”

Vieira felt that his team were more “compact” after the break.

“We struggled in the first half, because, in the midfielder, they created the overload, and we were quite late to put pressure on the ball.

"There was too much distance between (Odsonne) Edouard and our back four. That allowed them to play between the lines. In the second half, I think we were a little bit more compact.

“With the quality of the squad that they have, it was going to be challenging for us. I’m really happy with the way we answered.”