Wharton reflects on ‘happy’ return to league starting XI

The England international midfielder was involved in three of Palace’s four goals on the occasion of his first Premier League start since recovering from a groin injury, and was back to his influential best in a memorable performance from Oliver Glasner’s side.

“I’m feeling good, which is always good,” Wharton smiled. “I’m just happy to be able to get minutes and help the team get results like this.

“I thought it was a top performance. We stuck to the plan. We had to be patient. They're a good team. It's never going to be easy to just win like that. You've got to be patient and, when you get the chances, you've got to take them – and we did that tonight. It was a great three points.”

Palace emerged winners thanks to landmark goals for all three scorers: Ismaïla Sarr, netting twice on his 27th birthday; Jean-Philippe Mateta, whose goal took him second in Palace’s all-time Premier League scorers list; and Eddie Nketiah, his first Premier League goal for the club.

On Mateta, Wharton said: “He’s top. I think he, tonight especially, probably goes under the radar, but his hold-up play was unbelievable and it's a massive help for us as a team when he's playing like that.

“You can see his confidence is sky-high, which is really good for us. Hopefully he can continue his form and keep being himself.”

On Sarr, he said: “He’s so fast – you can probably see! But he works so hard for the team, both offensively and defensively. He deserved them two goals tonight. He nearly had a hat-trick.”

And on Nketiah, he smiled: “It just shows the togetherness that we've got in the squad, I think. All the lads were buzzing for him.

“He's been waiting for that first Premier League goal and we all know that. He's not had the minutes that he wanted, but you can see it every day in training. He's working his socks off to try and get the opportunities.

“When he does, like tonight, he gets the goal, that'll do his confidence a world of good. Hopefully he can continue that and helping us win games.

“Everyone’s working hard and, as a team, the morale is good – so we've just got to keep going.”

Ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Millwall, Wharton smiled:”It's a big game for us, and especially for the fans.

“We've got the same mentality as every game. We go into it looking to win and progress to the next round, so hopefully we can do that.”