Alan Pardew marked his first Premier League match as Crystal Palace manager by guiding his new team to a 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur that took them out of the relegation zone – and afterwards he was congratulated by his former boss at Newcastle United.
Mike Ashley evidently bears no grudges over Pardew’s decision to leave St James’ Park after four years for a club further down the table. “When I turned on my phone after the game the first text was from Mike Ashley,” revealed Pardew. “He just said ’great result’ and I appreciated that from him. He knows that it was probably the right time for everybody concerned.”
The manager received a rapturous welcome from Palace fans before the match and was cheered off after his team came from behind to beat Tottenham thanks to goals from Dwight Gayle (penalty) and Jason Puncheon.
That victory catapulted Palace up to 15th in the table and there are obvious signs of a feelgood factor returning to a buoyant Selhurst Park. Pardew said the key to victory was the injection of “maverick behaviour” into a side that had been too predictable in its thinking so far this season.
He singled out Wilfried Zaha for special praise. The winger, who is on loan from Manchester United, was introduced as a substitute in the second half and created the winning goal with an anarchic run down the left flank.
Pardew hopes that performance will inspire Zaha to make more such contributions throughout the rest of the campaign as Palace bid to avoid slipping back into the bottom three.
“Wilfried came on and gave me exactly the reaction I’ve been looking for,” said Pardew. “I left him out because I wanted to see what his reaction would be. This is a boy whose confidence I think needs to be rekindled. That [performance] will do him no harm – that 20 minutes was electrifying.”
