James McArthur had high praise for one key Crystal Palace staff member following the club's return to Premier League action at the weekend.
Roy Hodgson's side saw off Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium with a 2-0 win, making it four wins in a row in the league and four clean sheets.
McArthur admitted that the players are still searching for match sharpness after three months without a competitive game, but praised fitness coach Scott Guyett for his "amazing" work during lockdown and after the squad's return to training.
"It’s really good, there was a lot of hard work that went into it tonight," he told South London Press.
"A lot of fitness work that obviously went in behind-the-scenes just to get us in good shape for tonight and one where we look back at all the hard work and it’s all worth it now to get another three points.
"I think that Scotty’s done an amazing job, not only when we came back [to training], but with the runs he gave everyone to do when we were off and not knowing when we would be back.
"He's let us rest at times when we need rest and pushed us when we need to be pushed, so he’s done a great job.
"I think all of us would still want to be fitter, and at every single club, because you’ve not got that match sharpness, but I felt we handled the game very well tonight.
"We’ve got a lot of experience in that changing room when we did feel a bit tired we sat out and protected and made sure they didn’t get any chances and I thought we managed the game excellently. To come here and win 2-0 is a great result for us."
With Arsenal's back-to-back defeats against Manchester City and Brighton, Palace are now into the top half and looking up the table at what might be this season.
But McArthur stated that while a finish in the European places is possible, the squad cannot afford to look too far ahead and become distracted.
"It’s always each game as it comes," he added. "At one point in the season I heard a lot of talk of ‘Europe, Europe, Europe’ and we went on a run that we weren’t happy with.
"It bites you in the bum if you look too far ahead and start planning for things which aren’t there just now so all we can do is look at the next game and it’s going to be a tough game against Liverpool and try and get into that and cause an upset."
