Luka Milivojevic insists his confidence from the spot never waned as he scored two penalties to earn Crystal Palace a deserved draw against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Gunners looked on course to extend their winning run to 12 matches until the Eagles captain netted a late spot-kick to seal a 2-2 draw.
Milivojevic, who missed from 12 yards in defeat at Everton the previous week, had put Palace in front in first-half stoppage-time after Shkodran Mustafi fouled Cheikhou Kouyate.
Granit Xhaka’s superb free-kick and a controversial strike from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw the Gunners turn things around after the interval, only for Xhaka to upend Wilfried Zaha with seven minutes left.
The Palace. 👊#CPFC 🦅 #CRYARS pic.twitter.com/iyLg351IxF — Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) October 28, 2018
Milivojevic stepped up to beat Bernd Leno for a second time – his goals the first scored at home by Palace in the Premier League this season.
Despite missing at Everton when the game was goalless and seeing the Toffees go on to secure a 2-0 win, the Serbia international never intended on shirking the responsibility from the spot.
“I’m very happy after this game,” he told Palace TV.
“It is not easy when you miss and straight away in the next game you have penalties but as I said, I had confidence to take them and that I was sure I was going to score.
“I just decided where I wanted to go, where I want to shoot. I put pace into it and thank God I scored. Before the game I decided where I wanted to go.
“The second one was very hard to take, it was in the 83rd minute and we were very tired because we pushed a lot.
“I think I shot very accurately with the second one as well and I think from this game we deserved at least a point.
“When you feel a lot of pressure on your back and then you score, your pressure goes down.
“From the beginning of the season we played many good games and in the end dropped the points and lost the game.”
Unai Emery’s Arsenal had appeared to turn the game in their favour, equalising through Xhaka’s effort and going in front as Aubameyang turned home after Alexandre Lacazette had handled the ball.
The Gunners had won their previous 11 matches heading to Selhurst Park but have been starting games slowly in recent weeks.
That pattern continued in south London and defender Rob Holding conceded after the game that Arsenal need to be at it from the start from now on.
“We’ve come out in the second half in our past few matches and really turned on the style and scored some goals,” he said.
“We just need to start a bit faster and play how we do in the second half. That’s something to work on for the next game.
“It’s the end of the winning run and we’re disappointed with that, but as long as we don’t lose, it’s one of them.
“It was an entertaining game for the fans I suppose, but we’re disappointed not to keep that winning streak going.”
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