Roy Hodgson has called on Selhurst Park support to produce their "magic" when Arsenal come calling for Crystal Palace's first home game of the season.
Fresh from the announcement that Players' Player of the Season Michael Olise had agreed a new four-year contract – which the manager discussed in detail here – Hodgson spoke further on Monday evening's first Premier League home game of 2023/24.
At his pre-match press conference, the manager also answered questions on early team news; plans for the remainder of the transfer window; and his thoughts on Mikel Arteta's title-chasing opposition...
“[Marc Guéhi] is fine. [There] was an unfortunate cramp episode [at Bramall Lane].
“They’ve trained extremely well this week. We have exactly the same group that we had going to Sheffield. We still don’t have Will Hughes. We still don’t have Malcolm Ebiowei, because he’s not been there from the start.
“The young Brazilian boy, Matheus [França] is still in rehabilitation – we don’t quite know when he will be there for us – and of course we don’t have Michael [Olise].
“They’re the big four names [missing], otherwise we have the same 18 players, plus goalkeepers, we took to Sheffield United.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they [Chairman Steve Parish and Sporting Director Dougie Freedman] had some [players up their sleeve], because they’re good in those last weeks of the transfer window.
“Michael’s signing today has changed one aspect of our work. To lose both a left-sided forward midfield player [Wilfried Zaha], and a right-sided forward midfield player, that would have thrown us into some degree of difficulty.
“At the moment, we have a very good XI anyway. [Will] Hughes, who will be fit again soon, and Michael are adding to that.
“We’ve got very good cover at the back. It seems to me now we don’t need anywhere near as much as we would have done had we lost Michael. He has solved a number of problem areas for us.”
“We don’t know each other very well, of course. I have great admiration for the job he’s done at Arsenal. That’s a big club and he’s come in and done a really big job. I thought last season they were outstanding in every respect.
“I have a lot of sympathy, to get that close and do so well and be overtaken by the machine really that to some extent is Manchester City, who are also a wonderful football team. It must have been a gut-wrenching occasion, but they’ve come back strongly from that and started this season strongly.
“I think it will be another very good season from them. We’re expecting an exceptionally tough game. It’s always hard to play Arsenal – they always seem to do well against us even if we play well. They seem to find a way of getting a winning goal.
“We realise we’re playing against a very good team, a well organised team, and a team that everyone expects will be fighting for honours at the end of the season.
“Luckily we go into it off the back of a good start in terms of the three points and the performance in our eyes. It’s a good time, I think, to get this game played, and everyone at the club and all our fans will be boosted by the knowledge that one of these very talented young players [Olise] is still going to play for the club.”
“I’ll expect them to be extremely good on the ball. Their passing and movement is exceptional. They’ve got some unbelievably gifted players who are hard to quieten down in the game.
“They’ve got momentum, knowing that last year, but for an unfortunate period at the end of the season, they would have won the league.
“We’re expecting to play a potential Premier League winner. We’re expecting to see them come here and produce all their skills, and I think they will show us the respect to make certain they bring their best game to Selhurst Park, unfortunately.
“It means we will have to bring our best game to Selhurst Park and hope our fans can weave that magic that they do in getting extra ounces of energy and play from the team that maybe I, as a manager, can’t expect them to do.”
“I get caught up in the game too much sometimes! I was really caught up in the game. We were playing well and I was desperate for that second goal, and even more desperate that they didn’t equalise.
“I wasn’t really concentrating that much at all, and all of a sudden, I felt a tackle coming my way, which I should have been much more gracious about. I regret that I abused him verbally afterwards for the tackle, because it really was nothing at all.
“If it was giving a few people a lot of fun last week, then good luck to them, but it’s not something I would ever watch again, that’s for sure.”
“It will work for the clubs who have got the best players and who are best at keeping the ball. The teams with the biggest possession statistics, who keep the ball and move the ball well, who you have to work very hard to keep at bay, the extra-time will suit them because the longer the game goes on, the players who are working very hard to keep them at bay will be tiring.
“You get much more tired, as everybody knows, chasing the ball than passing it around and keeping it within your team.
“I think it will help those teams to some extent, but I’m not complaining about that, that’s the nature of the Premier League – you’ve got your place in the hierarchy. We have to come to terms with that as Crystal Palace and be aware that if we are under the cosh at some stage, because a team playing us has been so good, don’t keep looking up and waiting for the 90 minutes – because it might say 112!”
“It’s impressed me because it hasn’t been as plain sailing as everyone suggested it was going be. The way they have gone about, making certain they’ve done what’s needed to be done in the games to win them, to withstand the euphoria that everyone is trying to build up around the team, suggesting they’re such a good team they’d go in and roll over everybody… I’m sure the coaching staff and the players didn’t feel that way.
“They’ve done extremely well to get through to the final, with still probably some of their best moments ahead of them. It’s been well documented that they can actually blow teams away. They haven’t been able to as yet, but maybe the time is waiting around the corner and they will bring home a World Cup trophy for England.
“The only message really is one of immense congratulations, and to wish good luck, but also maybe to remind them of what they’ve achieved by winning the Euros and now getting to a World Cup final.
“They have moved Women’s’ football in England to a totally different plane, and they must be extremely proud of that. One hopes they’re going to get the glittering prize at the end of it, but they’ve already won an amazingly big prize because they’ve put Women’s football on the map in England in a way 10 years ago I don’t think we could have imagined would happen.”
“He’s a very dynamic player. Whenever he plays, he changes the energy levels, like Cheick Doucouré did when he came.
“It’s enabled us to play with two players in the Doucouré position and that has helped us in many ways. It frees up one or two more of the attacking players, and in particular, it gives us extra cover which you sometimes need in the defensive area when you lose the ball. We’re very happy with him. I think it was an excellent club signing.
“Olise almost feels like a new signing now. Him and Jefferson Lerma, that’s two very interesting signings, plus a young Brazilian who everyone speaks very highly of and who Doug [Freedman] speaks very highly of and is convinced has the potential to help us become a better team too, all of those things have given me heart today that we can look forward to another decent season at Crystal Palace.”
