Roy Hodgson cites one key thing his Crystal Palace side will need for Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester and Liverpool matches

BY SAM SMITH

Roy Hodgson believes Crystal Palace will need some luck to earn points from their next four games.

The Eagles began a tough run of fixtures by succumbing to a 2-0 defeat against Manchester City on Saturday evening. Hodgson’s side will have faced each of the five teams above them in the Premier League table within the space of five matches.

“It’s going to be very difficult. You have to play them all, haven’t you?” said the 72-year-old.

“We know that and you just have to hope sometimes that you don’t get them all in one run. We all know that if you are not one of the really top teams, a run of defeats is always waiting for you around the corner.

“If you are a bigger team you have the type of players who are able to help you out of runs like that. The good thing is we’ll get going, keep fighting. We will take each game as it comes. We will go into each game knowing: ‘we will have to be at our best today’ and we’ll maybe need a little bit of fortune to get a result.”

Goals by Gabriel Jesus and David Silva had Man City two goals ahead prior to half-time. it could have been more in the second half, Raheem Sterling struck the post and Jesus drew a fantastic save from Wayne Hennessey.

But it is perhaps true that Palace should have scored. Christian Benteke had a header tipped onto the crossbar and Ederson also denied Wilfried Zaha. Jordan Ayew scuffed the rebound over the bar.

Hodgson is adamant that positives can be taken into those games against Arsenal, Leicester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

“You can take some belief from the fact that being 2-0 down at half-time, playing against such a good team who are so confident at 2-0 up, it looks like you can possibly lose and it is the making of a five or six-nil.

“It wasn’t and if we had got a goal we would have been saying it was fantastic. But the bottom line is the game lasted 95 minutes and over 95 minutes, the team that deserved to win the game won the game.”

PICTURES BY KEITH GILLARD