Pascal Gross has revealed that head coach Roberto De Zerbi took a positive approach to preparations for the home game with Crystal Palace and was rewarded with that 4-1 win.
According to the Germany midfielder, De Zerbi trusted the players to get back to their best after the 4-0 defeat away to Luton Town - especially knowing the importance of the game against old rivals Palace to the Albion fans.
“We always look forward,” Gross said. “We know that (the Luton match) was really bad from us. We all knew it. The gaffer knows as well that we are man enough to take responsibility for performances like that.
“We have good characters in the team, we showed that often enough. I think he had full faith in us to bounce back and he expected us to, and we did.”
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One of the highlights of the performance was Gross’s creation of the third goal for Facundo Buonanotte - the Argentinian’s first at the Amex. First he caught Palace debutant Adam Wharton in possession. Then, after getting the ball back 25 yards out via Billy Gilmour and Joao Pedro, he sat defender Joachim Andersen down before spotting Buonanotte and slipping the ball to his right for our number 40 to curl his shot into the net.
Talk us through it, Pascal. “I got the ball, I faked the shot and Andersen was on the floor,” he said. “But I saw the defender with my right eye, Facundo’s man, coming across to try to block the next shot. So I thought if I gave him the ball with a good weight of pass, he had a better chance than me of taking the shot.”
Most people in the ground, including the Palace defenders, had expected Gross to shoot, but he took the unselfish option.
“Yes, of course. For me, assist or goal it doesn’t matter for me, I want to win football games. Today it was all about winning the game for the fans, for the team to bounce back – there was a lot of reasons why we should win that game. But it’s easier to say this than to do it. So we needed a big performance against Palace to win it.
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“It’s a massive game, always, when we play Palace. It’s always a big one in the season. Up there we drew but on Saturday we deserved to win, I think.
“We want to play good football but obviously in the last game we were very bad. But the game before, Sheffield in the FA Cup we dominated and won it well. We want to win more games, we want to play well, and one thing normally comes with the other, but it was a good win on Saturday and from there we can build.
“We play a lot of games now in the next four months but we worked really hard to be in that situation so we need to enjoy it.”