OLIVER Glasner said his players gave Crystal Palace supporters their “first Christmas gift” with their 3-1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend.
Centre-back Trevoh Chalobah fired home from close range in the 27th minute after a corner.
Ismaila Sarr headed in the second from Tyrick Mitchell’s cross six minutes later and scored his second eight minutes from time.
Brighton got a consolation through a Marc Guehi own goal in the 87th minute following another scramble from a corner but the Eagles comfortably saw out the game to inflict a first home Premier League defeat of the season on Fabian Hürzeler’s side.
After no wins in their opening eight league games of the season, Palace have lost only one of their last eight and have moved four points clear of the relegation zone.
“Happiness, especially about the performance of the players, and for our fans here today,” Glasner said as he summed up his feelings post-match.
“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 over all, a great performance and a big win.”
Glasner added: “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, 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.”
Sarr has scored three goals in his last five games.
Glasner said: “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.
“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.”
Palace could look forward to their EFL Cup quarter-final tie at Arsenal on Wednesday with more confidence after their improved form over the past two months.
“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 twelve players without the pre-season,” Glasner said.
“When we talk about the back three, for example, Marc Guehi 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, 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, 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.”
