Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew is delighted with what he's seen from Steve Mandanda.

Palace were already blessed with decent stoppers in Wayne Hennessey and long-serving Julian Speroni, but Pardew knew he had to make a move when the Marseille stopper became available.

The Palace boss said: “That was why I wanted to bring him – I felt I wanted my team to build the play a little bit more and have control of the game, so you need a goalie who can deal with the ball.

“Our goalies are decent but that happens to be his real strength and, of course, he has fantastic experience from his time at Marseille.

“He's also a real character. When you see him in and around the place, you can't help but feel confident with him. He's such a powerful personality and he's so calm – sometimes I just shake him to see if he's alive!

“He's going to be a really big favourite here."