Andros Townsend has defended Christian Benteke’s performance against Watford – despite him having to wait another game to score his first goal this season.

The striker almost got off the mark in the defeat at Vicarage Road, but his darting header was thwarted by Ben Foster at close range.

Although Crystal Palace’s record signing has scored three times in his last 34 Premier League appearances, Townsend insists there’s more to his performances than just goals.

He said: “It was a frustrating day for everyone. Christian played very well again. He had a chance but the keeper [Foster] made a great save.

“He worked hard, he won a lot of headers, running the channel, and causing all sorts of problems.

“The media focuses on his goal record but he has offered a lot and played very well again.

“With strikers people tend to forget about the performance if they don’t score but Christian was good on Sunday and I’m sure he’ll be good again on Saturday [against Southampton].”

Palace’s defeat to Watford is their first in more than two years, and first at Vicarage Road since February 2009.

Roy Hodgson’s men have picked up three points in their opening three league games heading into September which features one away trip to Huddersfield Town.

Despite some negatives, Townsend has joined others in praising new signing Max Meyer who featured once again for his new club at Watford.

He added: “He’s a fantastic player, we’ve seen in training already him, Cheikhou [Kouyaté] and Jordan [Ayew] have fitted in quite well. I’m sure they’ll come in at some stage but the 11 who are in the team at the moment, we’re all playing well.

“Yes, in the last two games we’ve not got the result we wanted but everyone’s playing well and it’s great for them to keep us on our toe.

“The competition in the squad will bring the best out of us.”