Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur: “We’re gutted – but it’s not a disaster”

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace have not won since their away success at West Ham United in early October – but that is not worrying midfielder James McArthur

The SE25 outfit lost their third Premier League game in a row as they suffered a 2-1 defeat against league leaders Liverpool on Saturday.

“We’ve been in games against very good teams,” said McArthur about the run of games which saw a draw against Arsenal and losses against Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester City and Liverpool. “We were sixth at one point [in the league] and played the five form teams above us, but we’ve done that and got it out the way now.

“I don’t think we are happy with where we are in the table, but I don’t think it is a disaster right now. Hopefully it gives us a platform to try and have a good season.”

Liverpool found themselves 1-0 down in the 42nd minute after James Tomkins headed in a Luka Milivojevic free-kick, but the goal was overturned by VAR due to an apparent foul on Dejan Lovren by Palace attacker Jordan Ayew. Sadio Mane grabbed a goal just after the break to put the visitors ahead before a Wilfried Zaha late equaliser was then cancelled out by an even later Roberto Firmino strike to take the three points back to Merseyside.

“I’m not really sure to be honest, I think there was a push maybe, but that’s the decision and we’ve got on with it and got ourselves back in the game,” said McArthur about the VAR decision.

“We’re just gutted that we’ve not got at least a point. I felt we played well. The fans got right behind us and that spurred us on from the first minute. We played well against a team that’s been unbelievable this year and made it hard for them.

“We tried to nullify their threats and tried to stop them getting in behind our lines, it did work but they’ve done what it’s taken to win the match – they seem to be doing that right now. Unfortunately for us we’ve not got anything, and we’re just gutted.

“[The manager told us he was] proud of the performance in the changing room but everyone’s gutted in there that we didn’t get the result.”

Despite the loss, Eagles boss Roy Hodgson said it was the best performance he had seen from his team this season with a number of players impressing, including Andros Townsend.

“It was a good performance by the team, and we need to build on it,” added McArthur. “Andros was brilliant and was excellent from the first minute, defensively he was brilliant and back to running with the ball and putting great deliveries in.

“Obviously the result is not the one we are looking for, but we need to build on the performance for the up and coming games and we’ll pick up plenty of points.”

PICTURE BY KEITH GILLARD