Crystal Palace vs Tottenham: Oliver Glasner confirms Eagles selection decision for London derby
Jean-Philippe Mateta will start for Crystal Palace when they host Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Eagles boss Oliver Glasner confirmed the selection decision when speaking to the media on Friday.
Mateta netted 16 league goals last season, but has only two so far this term and it has been suggested that he is suffering from a lack of time off in the summer, when he reached the Olympic final while competing for France at the Paris Games.
The 27-year-old has made substitute appearances in each of Palace’s last two matches with summer signing Eddie Nketiah leading the line instead, but Glasner has been weighing up a move to a two-man frontline that would see Nketiah and Mateta start as strike partners more regularly.
“I can tell you he will start”, Glasner said of Mateta. “He will start against Tottenham.”
Asked why Mateta, like many of his team-mates, is struggling in front of goal this season, Glasner replied: “Many different reasons again. It was his highest-scoring [campaign] ever, by far [last season]. Then, are we expecting it is time for the next record? It is not too easy.”
Palace remain winless in the Premier League this term, but Glasner insists the evidence does not suggest that his side are playing worse than last season.
Glasner said: “You know how many goals Crystal Palace scored last season in the first eight games? Seven. This year, it is five. And Michael Olise was here and Jordan Ayew was here. The year before, after 25 games Crystal Palace had 22 goals, and they had Wilfried Zaha here.
“So, Crystal Palace were not the goalscoring machine of the Premier League. They never have been. What happened the last seven or eight games [of last season] was extraordinary for Crystal Palace.
“The amount of goals at the end of the season — I think it was 57 — was the highest ever. So now expecting the highest ever, it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the players, it’s not fair to Crystal Palace.
“We lost this confidence. But we have more chances at the end of last season. I always look at the whole picture, and the whole picture doesn’t concern me that much.”
