Wilfried Zaha has admitted his head was all over the place after his failed summer transfer but he knew he just had to get on with things.

Arsenal and Everton both reportedly made bids for Zaha over the summer, but Crystal Palace weren’t interested unless one of the two upped their offer to around £80m. That never happened, so the winger remained in south London.

The feeling based on reports at the time was that Zaha was keen on a transfer, particularly to his boyhood club Arsenal. As a result, it was a tumultuous summer for him, which left him struggling to focus at the start of the new campaign.

“Obviously my head was a bit all over the place at the beginning of the season, but I had to nail down and just get on with it because the team deserved that,” Zaha said. “I would have been hindering my own progress by moaning and not wanting to perform properly.

“It was a thing where, ‘OK, this hasn’t happened, but I’ve got to get on with it’. I’ve got to prove every time I’m the top player I claim to be, so I had to get over it quickly.”

Zaha has made a mixed start to the season, only providing one assist and failing to score in nine games so far. Yet he’s been a starter every single week since his sub appearance on the opening weekend, and Palace are doing really well with him.

The Eagles currently sit in sixth, just one point behind Arsenal and seven ahead of Everton, so despite the goal contributions drying up Zaha is clearly providing some utility to the team.

It seems unlikely Arsenal will go back for the 26-year-old in the future. With Palace’s huge valuation and the emergence of a number of talented young wingers at Arsenal, it’s hard to see the value in a big-money move.