Erling Haaland’s looping header had us ahead at Selhurst Park after 17 minutes, maintaining his remarkable record of scoring every time he’s faced the Eagles in the league.
We doubled our lead in sensational fashion as Cherki showed incredible balance, agility and ball control to wriggle away from numerous Palace challenges before deftly flicking into the bottom corner.
GALLERY: CHERKI STARS AT SELHURST PARK!
Yeremy Pino’s free-kick deflected off Gianluigi Donnarumma and fell into the net to pull one back for the hosts, but Cherki was in unstoppable form, rifling into the top corner to restore our two-goal lead.
Haaland put the icing on the cake shortly before full-time by blasting in his second of the evening.
Cherki now has four goal involvements in our opening two Premier League games and when reflecting on his thrilling opening effort, he said:
“It’s my instinct, you know. I’m very happy for the win today.
“My performance was so and so, because in the first half we couldn’t find the space.
“When I saw Enzo was going to change me, I didn’t like that and I need to show them that I want to play and want to score and give assists for Erling.”
Despite winning the Player of the Match award after a masterful display, the Frenchman still marked a clear area for improvement in his personal game going forward.
“Today I didn’t give a lot of balls for him [Haaland]. The next time I want to give Erling a lot of balls.
“Of course with Pep we had a big story and now we’re starting a new story. We need to prove it every week. We’re here for that.
“See you next week.”
