Eze and Mateta on thumping Palace victory
Ebere Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta shared five goals between them as Crystal Palace demolished Aston Villa on the final day of the Premier League campaign, with the two expressing how much they were enjoying playing with one another.
“I'm very happy because we win a lot of games,” said Mateta, who scored Palace’s first Premier League hat-trick since Yannick Bolasie in 2015. “We play with this guy [Eze] always, the team is climbing. It's very fun when you win and you score a lot of goals, like today.
“We worked so hard, and I think we see the reward now, we see the benefit now. We just enjoy it, we have fun on the pitch.
“I can score, I can give the ball.”
Eze – who scored two of his own as well as setting up JP – came close to a hat-trick himself before being withdrawn in the second-half.
“He's what I'm playing for, man,” he said of Mateta. “He's finishing everything that comes to him, which makes our life a lot easier when I'm playing for him, so it's good.
“I did come close [to a hat-trick], but the most important thing is putting in good performances. We're all going to flourish, we're all going to have games where we score. Next time we're going to score.
“We're preparing the work and we're doing the work before we go on to the pitch, so we're enjoying it, that's the main thing.”
As the announcement for England’s European Championship squad comes closer, Mateta had a clear message for the Gareth Southgate: “He has to call, he has to, if he wants to win something!”
“Of course it's an honour [to play for your country],” added Eze. “It would be a great experience.
“I think it's a dream for any player to play in any big tournament. But the main thing, I'm being realistic. It is what it is: if I get a call, I get a call.
“But the main thing is doing what I need to do for my club, and that's the performance.”