Glasner: That was our first gift to the fans!
Oliver Glasner hopes Crystal Palace’s big win over rivals Brighton & Hove Albion can – in some small part – repay the fans for their outstanding support so far this season.
“Happiness,” Glasner summed up his emotions after the 3-1 victory. “Especially about the performance of the players, and for our fans here today.
“We knew it was an important game for our fans, for the club, and so the players performed really well today. We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of the second-half, but then we got the game under control, we scored nice goals, so overall, a great performance and a big win.
“I love football and this atmosphere. I mentioned it at the press conference: we prepared like we prepare every single Premier League game the whole season, [with] what we want to do, how we want to play, their strengths, their weaknesses, especially our strengths… and then, today, we talked about how important it is for our fans.
“The fans have always supported us the whole season. Even when we had the defeats at the beginning of the season, they were always behind the team, behind us, and we said maybe it's an opportunity for us to give them a little bit back, and maybe a first Christmas gift!
“The players – I mention it quite often – are great characters, so they gave the first Christmas gift to our fans, and I hope they enjoyed the afternoon.”
Trevoh Chalobah and Ismaïla Sarr (two) got the goals to cap a memorable collective display of resilience, diligence and – when the opportunity arose – a real cutting edge from the Eagles.
“We know that they play with a high line, defending man-to-man. Ismaïla’s strength is his pace, and then we knew we could get him there,” Glasner explained.
“The first one was a great header from him, so when we get him into these running duels he's always able to score goals. He's more confident than at the beginning of the season, he feels better.
“He understands better and better how we want to play as a team, what he has to do – also with Dani Muñoz, because there was one disallowed goal where he would assist and Dani the goal – this is getting better and better, so we are really pleased for him.”
As for the impact of his substitutes, who helped Palace gain a foothold during a difficult spell early in the second-half, Glasner smiled: “I’m very proud. We spoke about it before. We always call it ‘in the crunch time’: there are usually two, three, four, five new players on the pitch, and then we can win as a team, and today it was [the case].
“We changed our system to a 3-5-2 after half-time, we didn't get pressure on the ball, and then we could see all the quality they have in their attacking formation, and we needed Dean Henderson with two, three big saves in this situation.
“Then with the substitutions, it's completely normal. JP [Mateta] and Ebs [Eze] worked quite hard for the team, so then with Eddie [Nketiah] and Daichi [Kamada] we got more pressure on the ball, we got the game more into their half, and then we created chances and we scored goals.
“It's outstanding that with the third goal, Eddie wins the header in the duel against [Lewis] Dunk, and then Ismaila is the guy who runs one-on-one on the keeper and has an amazing finish, so that was a very, very positive team performance.”
Palace have now lost just once in their last nine matches, winning four of them, and – on Sunday – scored three goals in a Premier League match for the first time this season.
Explaining Palace’s recent turnaround, Glasner said: “We know each other for a long time, we’ve trained together for a long time. I mentioned it quite often but we didn't talk about it at the beginning of the season because it looked like excuses, and excuses never help to win games, so we worked pretty hard, the players worked pretty hard, and it was 12 players without the pre-season.
“When we talk about the back three, for example, Marc Guéhi was injured at the end of last season, so was new to how we played in the back three. Maxence Lacroix and Trevoh Chalobah arrived on deadline day, two weeks after the start of the Premier League, [so had] no time for them to train together.
“Trevoh wasn't allowed to train with the Chelsea squad, Marc arrived ten days before the Premier League start, after a very long season and tournament with England, so it just takes time [so] that we get each other known, that we know how we want to play, what we expect from them in defending, I think they are doing better and better, but I still think they are not on the top of how they can perform together.
“I can talk about many others who had this situation. We stayed very, very calm. The whole club always felt the support from the Sporting Director, from the Chairman, and from the players especially, because they are the most important ones, and so it's staying calm, working hard, analysing without emotion.
“Also, in the other games we were always competitive, but we didn't take the goals, we didn't take the wins, and now it's better.
“But also now is no time to relax and play bad, now is to keep the momentum and enjoy this win, but the preparation for the Carabao Cup quarter-final [at Arsenal on Wednesday] starts now, so we’ve started with the recovery in the locker room, and then we go to the Emirates, and we want to go into the semi-finals.”