Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock had a feeling Dwight Gayle was chomping at the bit, and so it proved in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Liverpool.

Gayle hit the equaliser after Ricky Lambert’s early opener, before Selhurst Park was treated to a second half display that will live long in the memory.

Joe Ledley made it 2-1 by connecting with Yannick Bolasie’s centre, and Mile Jedinak then lifted the roof with a spectacular free-kick that left Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet flapping at thin air.

But it was long before kick-off that Warnock saw something in Gayle on the training pitch that would be so effective.

Warnock said: “The week before last was the best Dwight has trained for many weeks, and I told him I’d like to see him train like that in the week building up to the Liverpool game and if he did, he had a chance.

“Fraizer [Campbell] had a little bit of a knock at the start of the week, but I’d already made up my mind to go with Dwight.

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“I could tell he was up for it in training by his demeanour, his eyes were bright, there was a sparkle in there.

“You can tell when a player is up for it, they’re enjoying the training and they’re eager.”

He added: “Dwight seems to do better with [Marouane] Chamakh, where he has a physical partner.

“People tell me that he and Marouane cannot last the full 90 minutes, but the statistics for Marouane show the huge distance he covered, it was fantastic.

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“And, Dwight was about more than his goal, he was chasing down the centre half with 90 minutes on the clock.”

There was a down-side to Sunday’s win when Damien Delaney (calf) limped off.

He will be out for up to two weeks, while Adrian Mariappa picked a knee injury in training and could be out for up to three weeks.

Next up for Palace is a trip to Swansea City on Saturday, followed by the visit of Aston Villa on Tuesday night.

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