Oliver Glasner has urged Crystal Palace to stay “humble” amidst the prospect of an unlikely Premier League title challenge.
Eddie Nketiah’s 97th-minute winner saw Palace become the only top-flight team to remain unbeaten this season as the Eagles beat Liverpool 2-1 at home to go second in the table, after Ismaila Sarr’s opener was initially cancelled out by Federico Chiesa.
“We’re still in September, so nothing changes,” iterated Glasner as Palace now sat three points off Liverpool, but vowed that their 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions count for little in a contrast start to their slow beginnings of last season which ended with FA Cup success and a club points record in the Premier League.
“Last year, maybe we were the only team that hadn’t won at this stage of the Premier League. We ended up with a points record and winning the FA Cup.
“That’s why we’re always humble. We take this positivity and positive feelings and emotions. It helps us to recover quicker, and it helps us in the daily work.
“We always talk about our game and we have many positive clips we can show the players, especially from the first-half and the mentality. We also have things we can still improve on.”
Glasner added in his post-match press conference that although it is “great” to beat the reigning league champions, Palace’s focus is immediately on their UEFA Conference League trip to Dynamo Kiev.
“But in five days we play against [Dynamo] Kyiv, so in the next two days the players come in tomorrow to recover. I think the win helps us to recover mentally. The legs get the treatment today and tomorrow. Monday we have off, and Tuesday we will start and push the team to win against Kyiv.”
Nketiah’s injury-time winner followed Palace’s penalty shootout victory over Liverpool in last month’s FA Community Shield, which led Glasner to joke about how they shouldn’t put him under unneeded stress but acknowledged that football is all about “the emotions,” and thrill.
“I told the players last time, when we won on penalties, I’m now over 50, they should look after my heart, make it a little bit easier to relax a little bit earlier.
“On the other side, this is why we love football, having this at the end, in front of our fans, in front of the [Holmesdale] stand, it was just so great. I wanted to run to the players, but after five yards I stopped, because I remember I conceded a yellow card once, and I have to pay something for the team, and my wife gets upset with me, so it’s the better way!”
The 51-year-old Austrian also praised his players for their “best” first-half display since his arrival in February 2024 as he explained his pride at how they handled the game overall.
“It was just the result, leading by one goal. When you play the champions, you always know they can strike back. Especially when we see their last games, they always scored late goals.
“To be fair, the second-half was immense pressure. We were lucky in a few times, we had Dean [Henderson] in one or two situations.
“What makes me really proud today is we conceded the equaliser in the 90th minute. Very often, the momentum changes and you lose a game. We kept our heads up, played forward and turned the momentum again. We got the game-winner. That makes me really proud of the group.
“I’m really proud and delighted about the performance.”