Middlesbrough 1 Crystal Palace 2: We need to learn from this defeat, says Aitor Karanka

Karanka said: “I don’t need to say anything. You said it was handball and I think everybody could see both of them so, for that reason, I don’t need to say anything, just to say that we have lost from mistakes.

“We have lost and we have to learn because this has been a good example that if we don’t play with our intensity, we are in the Premier League and we are going to pay for mistakes.

“If we arrived [going into the game] unbeaten, it’s because we played the first three games with an amazing intensity and against Palace, especially in the first half, we didn’t play with that intensity.

“In the second half, we had chances, we had a lot of things, but again it’s a good game to learn that we can’t drop our intensity for one second in the Premier League.”

Asked if his players would learn from a sobering experience, Karanka added: “I hope so because for sure I have learnt.

“They are intelligent and for sure they have learned that we have to play in the way we played the first three games and in the way that we played the second half [against Palace].”

Palace manager Alan Pardew believes keeping Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace after Tottenham launched a late bid to sign him could prove crucial to their season.

Chairman Steve Parish rebuffed Spurs’ £12m bid as the summer transfer window drew to a close, and was rewarded at Boro when the midfielder set up the opening goal and then scored the winner.

Asked how important that decision was, manager Pardew replied: “Of course, that was very important. The chairman made that very, very clear, that he wasn’t going to sell him, and I think he meant it, as he proved, so it was important.”

It was Zaha’s 16th-minute cross that provided £27.5m newcomer Christian Benteke with the chance to open his Palace account with a towering header, although the man he beat in the air to score, Daniel Ayala, made amends seven minutes before the break in equally imperious style from Stewart Downing’s corner.

The winner came when Friend’s woefully short back-pass allowed Zaha to fire home from close range.

Middlesbrough: Valdes, Barragan, Ayala, Gibson, Friend, Clayton (de Roon 57), Forshaw, Stuani (Traore 81), Fischer (Ramirez 57), Downing, Negredo. Unused substitutes: Rhodes, Guzan, Nsue, Chambers.

Crystal Palace: Mandanda, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Kelly, McArthur, Ledley (Flamini 84), Zaha, Puncheon, Townsend (Lee 77), Christian Benteke (Jonathan Benteke 84). Unused substitutes: Tomkins, Hennessey, Fryers, Dreher.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire).