Sam Allardyce’s return to Premier League management with Crystal Palace was everything we’ve come to expect from the big man. Palace secured a point at Vicarage Road, moving them two points clear of the relegation zone, and Allardyce got involved in a spat between Palace winger Wilfried Zaha and Watford mascot Harry the Hornet.
Boxing Day featured two fabulous goals in the Manchester United vs. Sunderland game (scored by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Fabio Borini), a dramatic winner from Olivier Giroud in the Arsenal vs. West Brom match and another near-perfect win from Chelsea, but this was Monday’s best storyline.
With the scores level at 1-1 in the dying minutes, Zaha went down in the box but was subsequently booked for diving. This incensed Watford mascot Harry the Hornet, who sought out Zaha after the match and took a theatrical dive in front of him. This is shenanigans of the highest order.
Zaha fuming after getting mugged off by the Watford mascot yesterday!
— ThickAccent(dot)Com (@ThickAcc) December 27, 2016
The row continued to the post-match press conference. Allardyce had this to say regarding Harry the Hornet: “The Premier League and FA can look at that and do what they want to do. That’s up to Watford to sort that out really. It could have made the wrong reaction as we know. The mascot is out of order, isn’t he? If someone is diving, they don’t get that angry.”
Sam Allardyce says Watford's mascot was 'out of order' for diving in front of Wilfried Zaha after the final whistle.
— Sam Cunningham (@samcunningham) December 26, 2016
With things threatening to boil over - Allardyce seemingly asking the FA to charge Watford with failure to control Harry the Hornet - Zaha took to Twitter to diffuse the situation by sharing a joke with Harry:
@1HHornet pic.twitter.com/H9ATqYZaTv
— Wilfried Zaha (@wilfriedzaha) December 27, 2016
Harry replied with his honest assessment of the winger's dive:
@wilfriedzaha pic.twitter.com/5heBpcRcwi
— OfficialHarryHornet (@1HHornet) December 27, 2016
