Gary Cahill says Crystal Palace executed the perfect game plan in their 2-1 win over Manchester United.
The centre half made his Palace debut after sitting the first two games of the season on the bench.
He put in a commanding display at the back as the Eagles secured their first Premier League success over United.
And the former England international, who joined from Chelsea on a free in the summer, praised the team’s hard work and desire for the win.
“The game plan was well executed and for that to happen, you have to work, you have be together, plenty of talking, plenty of organisation out there and we cracked it in that formation,” he told Palace TV.
“We did very well. We worked extremely hard for each other and we tried to counter when we had the chance.
“It’s difficult to come here. There’s going to be games when we’re going to have a lot more possession and this game away from home is probably not one of them.
“So that being said, we have to be in good shape, we have to work very hard and we did it. It was a fantastic, unbelievable result. I don’t think Palace have won here [in the Premier League] so it’s something to be proud of and it’s great to be back out there.”
Jordan Ayew gave Palace the perfect start with a cool finish, and after Daniel James equalised in the 89th minute, there was still time for Patrick van Aanholt to score Palace’s winner.
“[Ayew] showed a lot of composure, especially in front of 75,000 people to slot that away, so that was a nice start,” added Cahill.
“It gave us something to hold on to. Their equaliser was something special, it was a fantastic finish. We had to show desire to go on from there.
“That’s a mentality thing, you can easily crumble at that moment. To steady the game a little bit and then obviously we hit them on the break.
“It was great desire from Patrick at the dying seconds to make that run the whole way and get a shot off. It was great scenes at the end, a fantastic win, a reaction from the [Sheffield United] game last week, which was important, and we’re up and running.”