Roy Hodgson hoping to be a Crystal Palace record-breaker

By Andrew McSteen

 

Crystal Palace have just two games left in the 2017-18 Premier League season – and the previous 36 have certainly been a rollercoaster experience for the Selhurst Park faithful.

 

The Eagles’ 5-0 demolition of Leicester last week took them to 38 points and near-safety for another season, but more impressively, it jumped them up to 11th place in the league and the opportunity to look up and not down the table.

 

In fact, it is still possible that if Roy Hodgson’s men win their final two games – Stoke City later today and West Bromwich Albion a week on Sunday – combined with the results of Leicester City and Newcastle predominantly going their way – and a few goals in their favour – then they could finish as high as ninth in the Premier League come the end of the season. This finish would be the highest-ever for the team in the Premier League in their nine seasons, eclipsing the 10th place gained back in 2014-15.

 

Other Palace Premier League-era records could be equalled or even eclipsed. If the Eagles do not lose either of those two games, it would equal their lowest-ever loss total in the league since it moved to 20 teams – just 16 defeats. While their record points total will not be eclipsed (48 points in 2014-15) since the league moved to 20 clubs, if Palace were to score 10 goals in their remaining matches it would be the most ever scored in the Premier League and nine would equal it (50 goals).

 

“I would like to end the season with a few records – it would be nice,” said Hodgson to the South London Press at his weekly press conference. “I know the club takes a lot of pride in its history and I’m always getting people telling me about things that have happened and records.

 

“It would be rather nice if this team’s name and my name could be on a few of them, but the points are the most important thing and you only get points from performances.”

 

Despite the probability of Premier League safety, Hodgson will not allow his team to take it easy in the final two games as they go for as many points as they can get.

 

“We’ve got two more chances, but it won’t be easy,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer that it’s going to be a battle royale [against Stoke City] as it could be the last chance for them to have a chance [to stay up] and it will be the same with West Bromwich Albion, they might, possibly even probably, come here without that carrot of ‘if we beat Crystal Palace we can stay up’ – there’s a much bigger chance that they will come here with nothing to play for.

 

“But that won’t be the case unfortunately – I know WBA and I know their players. I’ve worked with almost half of them not so long ago and that’s not them, they’ll come out and play well.”