Crystal Palace made four new signings over the summer transfer window to bolster their squad after losing seven players at Selhurst Park, and Vieira will be hoping that the club have done enough to continue their push up the Premier League table.

The French manager enjoyed a fantastic first season with a great run in the FA Cup that saw them go to Wembley Stadium for the semi-final against Chelsea, while they comfortably finished 12th in the league table. However, now the Eagles boss will need to work hard to not only improve upon the last campaign but justify the decisions made in the summer.

Conor Gallagher was a stand-out performer for Palace last season with eight league goals, but made the move back to Chelsea after his season-long loan. There were reports he could return to Selhurst Park to continue his development but nothing materialised over the transfer window.

One big decision came when Palace decided to part company with Christian Benteke, letting him make the move to DC United to join Wayne Rooney's side in the MLS and despite a slow start in the Premier League, it won't be something that Palace will regret.

Benteke joined the club for a transfer fee of £27m six years ago from Liverpool after he failed to hit the ground running at Anfield, but wasn't the performer in front of goal Palace needed. Indeed, every one of his 37 goals cost the club £1.7m when you combine the striker's transfer fee with his annual salary of £6.24m collected over his six-year tenure.

In fact, over 177 appearances Benteke who was branded "selfish" by Danny Murphy only delivered a goal contribution every 3.6 appearances in all competitions and sustained six injuries amounting to 209 days in total on the injury table.

The Belgian forward was the second highest earner in the squad collecting £120k-per-week at the club despite only scoring four goals last term, so Dougie Freedman certainly struck gold with the decision to get rid of the Palace flop this summer.

It has made way for Vieira to give more opportunities to his younger forwards to develop a fresh attacking threat.

It will now give Jean Philippe-Mateta and Odsonne Edouard the chance to pick up more game time at the club to prove their worth to their manager and it will hopefully inspire more goal-scoring opportunities alongside Wilfried Zaha over the season ahead.

Benteke was hardly an influential threat in the final third so getting rid of him was definitely the best decision for all parties.