Crystal Palace get key VAR verdict – but Roy Hodgson says Eagles “good value” for victory

BY ROB SUTHERLAND

Roy Hodgson took delight in his Crystal Palace side’s 2-1 win over West Ham, and while much of the focus will be on the VAR decision to overturn the linesman’s flag for offside, it was the performance that he feels deserves the most credit.

“Our performance over the 90 minutes meant that we don’t need to apologise to anyone for the fact that we won here. I thought we were good value for it,” said Hodgson.

“We subdued them through the bulk of the game really. The chances were fairly even on both sides. Certainly we had a lot of possession, as did they for periods of time.”

Palace’s perseverance was a key positive for the manager, who witnessed his side go a goal down early in the second half through Sebastien Haller. A converted penalty from Patrick van Aanholt and a late goal from Jordan Ayew secured the win.

“It’s a victory the players not only deserve but they certainly worked unbelievably hard for it and got it against a good West Ham team.

“We didn’t win because West Ham were bad. We were lucky enough to get the decisions we got but good enough to give the quality of performance we gave.”

Palace’s strong start to the season hasn’t distracted the manager from the job at hand, though.

“We’ve got to make certain we keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last couple of years and continue to do it well — continue to remain modest — if we want to make sure this club stays in the Premier League.”

“With every year the club stays in the Premier League, it becomes stronger.”