Oliver Glasner eager to see Eberechi Eze kick on after winning goal
Eze’s strike saw off Southampton.
Oliver Glasner hopes Eberechi Eze’s winner in Crystal Palace’s 2-1 comeback victory over Southampton will kickstart a scoring streak as the Eagles look to climb further clear of the relegation zone in 2025.
The influential England attacker, who has been plagued by injury, wrapped up all three points with just his second goal of the league campaign seven minutes into the second half after Trevoh Chalobah cancelled out Tyler Dibling’s 14th-minute opener before the break.
Palace, who began their season with a joint club record-worst eight-game winless streak have now picked up 13 points from their last eight – the seventh-best record in the Premier League across that stretch.
“Absolutely, this will help him,” said Glasner of Eze. “You can train with the strikers, you can talk to them, you can hug them, you can kick them. The only thing that helps is that they need this goal.
“He got it today, and that’s very good for him personally, but this will also be very good for us, because we need Ebs in our attack. We need the goals from him.
The distance between Saints and safety ballooned to the double-digits after Wolves salvaged a late draw with Tottenham to move them two points clear of 18th-placed Leicester and 10 more than new Saints boss Ivan Juric’s men.
Chelsea loanee Chalobah nodded the sides level from Will Hughes’ corner in the 31st minute, the goal standing after a VAR check despite Aaron Ramsdale’s protests that he had been impeded by Mateta and Palace players pushing forward.
Even Glasner agreed with Juric – who now has two losses from his first two matches in charge – that it would have been “a foul all over Europe, but not in England”, adding: “We were told it before the season in a manager meeting with the referees, and I think they told us in the Premier League, not any contact is a foul.
“And this is what makes the Premier League number one in the world’s football, and you can see this in every single set play.”
Juric, who took charge of a Premier League match for the first time in Saints’ Boxing Day loss to West Ham, was nevertheless disappointed by how his new charges conceded their second.
He said: “I think we started very well. I think the first goal, for me, it was a foul, and it’s very difficult to defend this kind of situation when they are pushing your goalkeeper, but first half, I think we can do it better on the second ball.
“They were better than us. In the second half, we did better in this kind of situation, and we dominated a little bit (of) the match.
“We lose two games, two set pieces. Second goal was, like West Ham, a complete disaster, but first goal, for me, was a foul.”
The transfer window will be open by the time Southampton face Brentford on January 4th.
Asked if he expects it to be busy, Juric replied: “We are too many. If I understand well, we have to give players back or a loan and then decide to bring somebody.”
