Crystal Palace eased past Leicester City in the Premier League’s lunchtime fixture on Saturday, 3-0. The win moved Palace into 14th place ahead of the remainder of the weekend’s fixture.
Christian Benteke, Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako tallied goals for Palace, and manager Roy Hodgson stated following the fixture he “isn’t surprised”. The win was Crystal Palace’s first win away from Selhurst Park this term, and it was the team’s second in a row.
“We’ve been getting closer and closer and today it all fell for us,” Hodgson said after the match. “I’m delighted with the victory, but I’m not that surprised because we’ve been threatening to do that for quite a long time now.”
The Eagles lost their first seven games of the Premier League season. The team didn’t record their first goal until the eighth match of the term. In the team’s last 11 fixtures, Hodgson’s side have lost just twice. Since November 18, Palace haven’t lost a match. That is a run of seven games unbeaten.
Hodgson was extremely happy with Benteke’s performance against Leicester and spoke about it following the game.
“I think the crowd appreciate not just the goal, but the fact that Christian was working so hard in the other aspects of his game as well,” Hodgson stated.
“They were singing his name which was fantastic because after missing the penalty he perhaps rightly, many people were saying, got some stick from the crowd.”
Benteke’s goal was his first of the season after he endured a very rocky start to the Premier League season. Meanwhile, Zaha’s goal was his fourth of the term.
Crystal Palace will start a difficult run of fixtures upcoming. The team play Swansea ahead of Christmas before playing Arsenal and Manchester City to close out 2017.
The team’s form has made Palace look far stronger in the fight against relegation this term.