Roy Hodgson claimed Etienne Capoue was fortunate to avoid being sent off for his foul on Wilfried Zaha during Watford's 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace.

The midfielder cynically raked Zaha's Achilles in only the fourth minute when he had little hope of winning possession and while referee Anthony Taylor awarded him a yellow card, Palace's manager felt it should have been a red.

Roberto Pereyra curled in a sumptuous finish before José Holebas inadvertently added a second with his cross, before Zaha claimed one back for the Eagles late on.

Hodgson said: "We were unlucky he was not sent off. [Taylor] could have sanctioned him even harder.

"At the time I thought it was a bad challenge. I had no idea quite the degree of severity. It definitely affected Wilf. We didn't see anything like the best of him until late in the game. One can understand that type of challenge affecting him.

"We have to get used to that. Players of his match-winning ability do get targeted. He was targeted by that foul but he got over that and his ending to the game was quite good.

"At 2-0, we could have thought it wasn't our day, but we asked a lot of questions in the last 20 minutes. We really should have equalised with that header (from Joel Ward) in the last minute.

"At 2-2, I would have been satisfied. On balance we could well have been worthy of a point. But we didn't get it; that's what we live with. Now we have to be ready for the next one."

Capoue refused to discuss the challenge, which Watford's head coach Javi Gracia claimed he had not seen.