Yannick Bolasie has confidently claimed that he gave Pablo Zabaleta a tough time every time they played against each other.
The only game that stands out is when Bolasie faced off against Zabaleta in the 2014/2015 season for Crystal Palace against Manchester City.
On the day, Palace lost 3-0, courtesy of a brilliant David Silva brace and a Yaya Toure strike.
Yannick Bolasie confidently claims he “had the better of” Pablo Zabaleta
The Congolese winger certainly gave the likes of Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala problems with his quick feet and erratic dribbling.
But Zabaleta handled everything that came his way from one of the Premier League’s most feared widemen at the time.
However, former Crystal Palace hero Yannick Bolasie believes he was a nightmare for Pablo Zabaleta to handle on the left wing.
“So, [Pablo] Zabaleta, I’ve had the better of him, Yeah, I’m saying. I’ve had the better of him”, he said on the Filthy Fellas podcast.
In the reverse fixture, Palace managed to beat City 2-1 but Bacary Sagna was the Sky Blues’ starting right-back on the day.
Pablo Zabaleta was brilliant in one versus-one-situations
As unpredictable a winger as Yannick Bolasie was, one cannot remember a game where his trickery bamboozled Pablo Zabaleta throughout the course of 90 minutes.
Not many wide forwards could get the better of Zabaleta, who was a tough tackler, an intelligent reader of the game and forced wingers to track back due to how excellent he was going forward.
The two-time Premier League winner has rarely had a game in general when a winger caused him problems, especially before the 2016/2017 season in which he was well past his prime.
Pablo Zabaleta was the embodiment of a traditional right-back, contributing on both ends of the pitch to a world-class standard.
While Yannick Bolasie did cause mayhem during his time in the league, the Manchester City legend was not one of his victims, in our view.
