Palace boss Glasner surprised at Nketiah's workrate

Former Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah  Pic: AP Photo/Frank Augstein

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner revealed he was pleasantly surprised by the dedication displayed by new signing Eddie Nketiah.

The forward's five-year deal was the most costly of the Eagles' deadline-day signings, but came too late to see the 25-year-old included in his new side's 1-1 Premier League draw with Chelsea before the international break.

Nketiah could now make his Selhurst Park debut against Leicester on Saturday after making an excellent first impression upon his arrival in south London from Arsenal.

Glasner said: "I could see it in the first training (session). He is very good technically, he has a great finish.

"We had a friendly game in the international break and he scored two goals. He has this feeling, maybe you can't learn as a striker how to move, where to move and a great finish.

"And what I'm really surprised at, in a positive way, is how hard he's working in training.

"He's always one of those guys who is running most in a training session, having the highest intensity in his training.

"This is also very, very positive for us and I'm happy that he's here."

Glasner confirmed the former Gunner was fit to start, adding: "We believe in his quality, we believe in his mentality and his character and he showed it.

"He's ready. He can play different positions because he's very smart, he's a different profile than (Jean-Philippe) Mateta, and it also can be that we can change our system."

Palace were at the centre of a flurry of activity late on deadline day, with multiple Eagles incomings and outgoings submitted as deal sheets, allowing clubs to finalise paperwork past the 11:00pm deadline.

Trevoh Chalobah, whose loan move from Chelsea was also confirmed on August 30, will not make his own Palace debut this weekend after sustaining what Glasner described as a "really strange" abdominal muscle injury in his first training session.

Palace, who suffered two losses to start their season before the Chelsea stalemate, on Thursday welcomed back Colombia internationals Jefferson Lerma and Daniel Munoz from international duty.

Adam Wharton is also fit for the Foxes contest after he was forced to miss out on joining England Under-21s with a fitness issue.

As a result, for the first time Glasner has something resembling his near-full complement of Palace players - following what was also his first transfer window in charge.

He added: "We can see there is a very good spirit in the group, but also, in a way, we have to be self-critical.

"I told the players, 'For us, it's like a restart." Let's say when you have a Formula One car and you have to change one tyre, because it's 25 per cent.

"It's the same in our squad. We have 30 to 40 per cent changes in our squad and this means we have to build the group new again.

"We have to find the common sense of playing, how we want to treat each other in the locker room and this is starting today."