Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner hailed “brilliant” Michael Olise after the 3-1 win at Wolves – and said he could use the same word to describe his team-mates.
Olise, the two-goal star of the show in Monday’s 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United at Selhurst Park, opened the scoring in the 26th minute at Molineux with a delightful curling strike, and was then key in the build-up to Palace’s second two minutes later, scored by Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Wolves pulled a goal back midway through the second half when Matheus Cunha fired in, before Olise’s pass then set up Eberechi Eze in the 73rd minute to wrap things up for the in-form Eagles, who were reduced to 10 men by Naouirou Ahamada’s sending off with five minutes of normal time to go.
On Olise, Glasner – whose side are unbeaten in six Premier League games and have won five of them – said: “I think everybody knows he’s a good player.
“He’s fit now, I also think we found a very good position for him and he has a lot of individual qualities. He is a brilliant player, a great guy, but he also benefits from other players.
“Michael is brilliant, Ebs (Eze) is brilliant, Dean (Henderson) was brilliant, Joel (Ward) was brilliant. I could tell you all the players, because otherwise we wouldn’t have won here.”
The latest fine result in Palace’s strong conclusion to the season under Glasner – appointed as successor to Roy Hodgson in February – sees them leapfrog Wolves into 12th place in the table with one game left to play, at home against Aston Villa.
Asked about ensuring player motivation for the Wolves match, the Austrian said: “I talk about our personality, our identity, and this is what we always want to show.
“We never know the results but when we meet the next time, we want to say ‘yes, we did it, we gave everything we could, we played how we want to, supported each other’, and then we accept the result. That is how we want to play, every single game.
“We play for our fans, for Crystal Palace and for us, for our group, because we have such a great time now, and everybody is enjoying it. Also the last days, 22 degrees, we had a barbecue and we were enjoying it together.
“But at the beginning it’s always hard work, and the players are really very ambitious and very hard-working, and then you get the reward, and this is what we are enjoying.”
Palace midfielder Will Hughes was forced off early on due to a knee issue, and Glasner said: “The Wolves player (Cunha) slipped and then straight into his knee, we hope it’s nothing with the ACL. We will see but of course we hope it’s not that serious.”
Wolves, who have the same amount of points as Palace, have won only one of their last eight league outings, losing four of the last five, with a season-concluding trip to Liverpool to come.
Boss Gary O’Neil said: “Really disappointed, close to as disappointed as I’ve been probably first half. There’s been a few halves like that recently, but a really, really disappointing one. I think we beat ourselves.
“I’m really disappointed in myself today mainly as to how a team we prepped can produce that in the first half, so it’s my responsibility first to make sure we get better, and then that needs to spread throughout the club, playing group, recruitment team, everybody.
“There’s a huge summer coming. A lot of work to be done between now and next season.”
