OLIVER Glasner admitted Eberechi Eze was “suffering” before the England attacker scored his first Premier League goal since September to help Crystal Palace defeat Southampton 2-1 at Selhurst Park in their last game of 2024.
Saints, with Ivan Juric taking charge of his second game, went in front on fourteen minutes when Kyle Walker-Peters crossed for Adam Armstrong who helped the ball on for Tyler Dibling to finish from close range
Trevoh Chalobah headed home Will Hughes’s corner half an hour in and the goal stood after a VAR check following Southampton protests that Jean-Philippe Mateta had fouled goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Eze scored seven minutes into the second half, his first goal at home this season and fourth of the campaign in all competitions.
“I’m very pleased for him.” Glasner said.
“Maybe it’s the circle of football. It started with the disallowed goal at Brentford after ten minutes.
“It was the first game of the season and now it’s the last game in 2024 and now he scored this goal.
“He was really suffering, it looked like with this special moment.
“He had many big chances, great saves by the keepers, missing by one inch, hitting the post and then all of a sudden it was in his head.
“I could see him, he was suffering. I’m really pleased for him that he scored the game winner today.
“It will help him, absolutely. I have mentioned it so often, with the strikers you can train with them, you can hug them, you can kick them.
“The only thing that helps is that they need this goal. He got it.
“First half he had three four situations with his dribbling, he had one finish into the arms of Ramsdale, he had two free kicks but this will help him, definitely.”
Glasner added: “I’m very pleased. Everybody expected us [to win] against the bottom team at home, but these games are often the difficult ones.
“Today we were very strong from set-plays and scored the goals.”
Glasner admitted Chalobah’s goal probably would not have stood in other leagues.
“All over Europe yes [it would have been disallowed], but not in England,” he said. “This is the Premier League. We were told about this at the start of the season and what I really like is that it’s always the same line. If this goal would have been disallowed then many goals from many other teams would have been disallowed.
“Everybody uses the rules to the very edge. This is what we are doing, this is what Arsenal are doing, everybody is doing.”
Palace are now six points clear of the relegation zone but Eze knows they have not matched their potential yet this campaign.
“We want to do better than we’ve done so far this season. We’re not where we want to be now, for sure,” Eze said.
“But I feel like we’re in the right place, we’re in the right frame of mind. We’ve got the right mindset and I feel like we’ll kick on.
“It was a tough game. I feel like in the first half we had quite a few chances.
“We could have probably gone ahead then, but it’s one of those games where we stuck to it. We kept going, we kept pushing, and got the three points.”
Eze added: “I always believe in myself and I’m always confident, so I know that there’s phases and time that will go by, but I trust myself.
“It’s football. You try to make the right decision all the time, you’re trying to do the right things, but sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t.
“But I think the mentality was there, we kept pushing, we kept going, and I feel like that’s the main thing. That’s what actually gets you goals in the end.”
