This article is part of Football FanCast's Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba's haircuts to League Two relegation battles...

In football, there can often be a pantomime villain.

A player who the opposition supporters love to rile up, either due to previous incidents or merely in an attempt to distract them from performing to the best of their abilities.

In this instance, that player is Wilfried Zaha, and those supporters are Watford fans.

Ever since the Ivory Coast international won that penalty against the Hornets in the Championship playoff final, a moment that led to Crystal Palace scoring the £120m fixture's only goal, there has been somewhat of a vendetta towards the mercurial forward.

Watford's mascot Harry the Hornet has even gotten in on the act, diving in front of Zaha in mocking fashion following a Premier League tie at Vicarage Road in 2018 - Roy Hodgson later branded the man dressed as an insect as "disgraceful".

If you happen to have been present in previous meetings between the two sides, you might have heard some Watford fans singing: "He's gonna dive in a minute".

Even the Watford players have gotten in on the act. Etienne Capoue leapt on the Achilles of Zaha at Vicarage Road last season, raking his studs down the former Manchester United man's leg before appearing to gee up the home support afterwards in 2018 - Hodgson later admitted the incident affected his star man.

Moving away from the Hornets for a moment, and we saw last season how Zaha can become frustrated as well as affected when being actively wound up by the opposition.

Southampton's James Ward-Prowse managed to get Palace's No.11 sent off after pretending to throw the ball in his face and then patting him on the cheek earlier this year - if that sent Zaha over the edge, a Watford fanbase and squad who are currently anchored to the bottom of the Premier League will be in no such mood to sugarcoat anything.

Hodgson needs Zaha to behave, as there seems little doubt that Watford will do their best to press his buttons once again.

In other news, these Crystal Palace supporters on Twitter are all saying the same thing about Christian Benteke...