Ghana star Jordan Ayew is targeting a ‘great season’ with Crystal Palace ahead of the club’s first home fixture of 2023/24.
The Eagles take on Arsenal at Selhurst Park on Monday night after starting the campaign with an impressive display and result on the opening day of the season, beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Ayew is aware that Palace are up against a top-level opponent in Arsenal, who led the Premier League table for much of last season – but feels Palace’s own ambitions offer them plenty of motivation when it comes to taking on the Gunners.
The forward told cpfc.co.uk that: “At home, with our supporters and with players who have our quality, it’s normal that we put teams under pressure and make it hard for teams.
“A team like Crystal Palace have to make it difficult for every team, and at home especially, it should be our fortress, with the twelfth man that we have – our supporters.
“That’s what we try to do, and we’ll do it again on Monday. We want to have a great season, and that starts from winning games at home.”
Entering his sixth season as a Crystal Palace player, Ayew is well aware of the influence that a raucous Selhurst Park can have on the outcome of matches.
He noted: “It’ll be a really good feeling to be back at home in front of our fans, with a really good atmosphere.
“Since I’ve been at this football club, I’ve never seen them have one game where there’s no atmosphere – every game it’s the same. They are going to back us – and we have to do the rest.”
On the win at Sheffield United, the No.9 observed: “It was good. Obviously we’re at the start of the season so you always want to start well. You want to have a good performance.
“Everybody comes back from holiday with personal ambitions and club ambitions, and it was good that we got the three points and everyone was at it. We need to keep building on that.
“We want to keep building on what we did in the last three or four months since the gaffer came in. That’s what we hope to do and we’ve started well, but it’s just the first game and we need to keep doing that, keep consistency and keep pushing ourselves to perform every weekend.”
As for the prospect of facing Arsenal, Ayew said: “We just need to keep on doing what we do best, play our game, concentrate on ourselves, make sure that we are ready for the game, and make sure we can put in a good performance and come out of the game with no regrets.
“The result is something different, but the most important thing for us is to put on a very good performance, and after, we’ll see.
“They [Arsenal] showed last season [they are a good team] and they started the season well as well. Monday is a different game and they need the points, we need the points – it will be a battle.”
