Jean-Philippe Mateta may come to view a week in December as a sliding-doors moment in his career.
Losing the battle for game time to Odsonne Edouard, the Frenchman was considering his Crystal Palace future. The January transfer window was fast approaching and Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig and Real Betis were all interested in him.
But when Edouard suffered a knee injury against Liverpool on December 9, Mateta replaced him at half-time and converted from the spot in a 2-1 defeat.
Seven days later, he scored the 76th-minute goal that started Palace’s spirited comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Manchester City at the Etihad.
Since then, Mateta has not lost his place in the Palace starting line-up and his all-round game has come on no end.
A brace in Sunday’s 5-2 thrashing of West Ham means he has six goals in eight games under Oliver Glasner.
Scoring against Newcastle at Selhurst Park tonight would take him to 10 Premier League goals in a single season for the first time.
Well-built and standing at 6ft 4ins, it would be all too easy to assume Mateta is a one-trick pony, yet the goals he has scored this term show real variety.
As well as poacher’s finishes, penalties and headers, the 26-year-old scored ruthless strikes against Nottingham Forest and Manchester City and a gorgeous back-heel flick against Luton.
“When strikers score and have confidence, their decision-making is better,” Glasner said yesterday. “He gets chances in every game and makes excellent runs. He is investing a lot and is really hard-working. He’s running 10 times when he doesn’t get the ball, but he does it [anyway]. This helps the team create space, create opportunities.”
While Mateta said in an interview with The Athletic this month that he can become one of the best goalscorers in the Premier League, it is honing the other parts to his game that is seeing him play the best football of his Palace career.
When Roy Hodgson gave him the run of games in December after Edouard’s injury, it became apparent how much his hold-up play had improved.
Palace’s two best players, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, have both had stop-start seasons due to injuries, but when they have played, Mateta’s tireless ability to keep the ball and lay it off has allowed both to produce their livewire best.
For the last three transfer windows, there have been murmurs of Mateta’s departure. This year, he will head into the summer a key cog in Glasner’s evolving machine.
Despite the outstanding wins over Liverpool at Anfield and against West Ham which have properly kick-started Glasner’s reign, there is no risk of the side in 14th resting on their laurels.
Glasner said: “Of course those results are fantastic, but for us it’s more important to look at our performances.”
Palace’s last five games are all against teams above them, but their front-foot style and dynamic 3-4-2-1 system caused both Liverpool and City real problems in recent weeks. Daniel Munoz and, particularly, Adam Wharton look inspired January recruitments, while Glasner is pleased his side are no longer “always taking the safe pass”.
It is clear that Palace have turned a corner, but their manager is diplomatic about that.
“I don’t want to say we play better than before,” said the Austrian. “It would be a criticism of Roy Hodgson and I can’t do this, because he’s such an experienced and great manager. What happened happened, and it’s about looking forward.”
