Following the departure of Tony Pulis and Crystal Palace’s late defeat at Arsenal, Joel Ward was keen to focus on the playing side of the game.

The full-back, voted young player of the season last term, has seen three managers leave Selhurst Park in the past three seasons.

He said: “It was a bit of a shock losing him [Pulis] like that but that's football, it's happened a lot over the years but as professionals we've got to get on with the job in hand.

“I found out about it through the media side of things but we have a great bunch of lads here, very professional and we go about our jobs here and see what happens.

“Obviously Tony's record speaks for itself - the way we played under him and we tried to replicate that against Arsenal.

"We played well but unfortunate not to go away with some points."

He added: “At the moment I’m just focussing on football and my game, that's all you can focus on and you can't affect what’s going on outside of the club.”