Oliver Glasner hailed Crystal Palace's meticulous set-piece preparation as the Eagles soared to a 2-0 victory over Brentford at Selhurst Park on Saturday. Goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and a Nathan Collins own goal secured the win, lifting Palace to seventh in the Premier League table.
Glasner emphasized the limited time his team had to prepare for the match, given their midweek Carabao Cup win against Liverpool. "We didn't have a lot of time to train because we played Wednesday evening at Liverpool, coming home at three in the morning," Glasner explained. With minimal time for traditional training, Glasner and his staff prioritized set-piece execution. "Thursday was just recovery and yesterday we trained 25 minutes on the pitch then 15 minutes just defending throw-ins and attacking throw-ins because we knew it would be a topic today," he added.
The emphasis on set-pieces proved decisive. In the 30th minute, Daichi Kamada's free-kick was nodded across by Jefferson Lerma, finding Jean-Philippe Mateta, who directed a looping header into the top corner. This was Mateta's eighth goal of the season. Crystal Palace doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when Lerma's long throw was inadvertently headed into his own net by Brentford captain Nathan Collins.
Glasner credited his assistants for their work in preparing the team for these crucial moments. "Credit to my assistants who prepared all the clips and set up how we defended it, and also in attack so we could score from it," he said. He also highlighted the importance of set-piece training in general, stating, "We use the minutes we are on the pitch more and more for set-plays, we're always training it and I think it would be really stupid from us if we don't train it". Glasner believed that winning the "set-play battle" was ultimately the key to his team's victory. "We spoke about how it could be a set-play battle and at the end I think we won the set-play battle because it's why we could win the game, a very good, important win today".
Brentford manager Keith Andrews acknowledged the significance of set-pieces in the match. "It was a tight game, clearly a game where set-pieces were very, very prevalent in how the result went," Andrews said. He also admitted that his team did not perform to their usual standards. "In terms of our performance, did we reach the heights of recent weeks individually, collectively? No," he stated.
Despite having less possession, Palace dominated the first half in terms of attacking threat. After the break, Collins' own goal further solidified Palace's advantage, and they comfortably saw out the remainder of the match.
Crystal Palace are now unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League games at Selhurst Park. This victory marks their first league win in four matches and positions them just two points behind second. Brentford, meanwhile, sit in 12th place with 13 points.
