Former Tottenham forward Garth Crooks has been signing the praises of Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita after his performance against Brighton.
The Spaniard put in a fine performance as Palace drew 1-1 with arch-rivals Brighton at Selhurst Park on Saturday, with Guaita making a number of good saves to deny the visitors, including stops to thwart Alexis Mac Allister twice and Kaoru Mitoma.
Solly March did find a way past the Spaniard midway through the second period to put Brighton in front, but Palace salvaged a point after a costly mistake from Seagulls goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, who fumbled a cross to gift James Tomkins the equaliser.
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But BBC pundit Crooks has suggested that Palace would not have got anything out of the game had it not been for the performance of Guaita.
Naming the 36-year-old in his team of the week for BBC Sport, Crooks said the Palace goalkeeper deserves to be rewarded for his “top drawer” display in a game Brighton should have won.
“Crystal Palace players need to give [Vicente] Guaita half of their bonus money at the end of this month after their goalkeeper's performance against Brighton,” said Crooks.
“Palace were poor and it still took a wonder goal by Solly March to finally beat him. Two saves from Alexis Mac Allister were fairly routine for a keeper of Guaita's class but the one-handed save from Kaoru Mitoma, pushing the ball wide of the post, was straight out of the top drawer."
Guaita was the only Palace player named in Crooks' team of the week, which also included Manchester United duo Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford, and Leicester City trio Wout Faes, James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho.
Crooks' team of the week : Vicente Guaita (Crystal Palace), Craig Dawson (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Wout Faes (Leicester City), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Willian (Fulham), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea), James Maddison (Leicester City), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Ivan Toney (Brentford), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City).
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