If there was a campaign that Crystal Palace should have struggled under Roy Hodgson, it was this one. The Eagles had an horrific fixture list which involved consecutive games against Manchester City, Arsenal, Leicester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Palace only managed to get one point from those fixtures and the hammering from those games made many people predict a downward spiral for Hodgson’s men for the remainder of the season.
Thankfully for Palace fans, the Eagles recovered brilliantly and are at no risk of relegation. Their form since the restart has been poor but, had Hodgson got his wish at the start of the season, he could well be fighting for a place in the top half of the table.
The Palace boss claimed in his pre-match press conference that Crystal Palace tried to sign Manchester United’s wonder-kid Mason Greenwood on a season-long loan deal.
He told The Mirror: “Mason is a fantastic player. We’ve known about him for a while and in actual fact, I think we might even have enquired about him at the start of the season if there was any chance of him coming on loan.
“Of course you get the answer ‘no chance’ because they see him as one of theirs. It wasn’t a difficult spot though. I think people all over the Premier League have realised there is a real talent on the books of Manchester United and it’s been just a question of time before he gets his chance.”
What a signing that could have been!
Greenwood has been a phenomenon. The young Englishman has 16 goals in all competitions this season and he has shown the world that he is destined to reach the very top in the future.
Palace have lost each of their last five games in the Premier League. Winning just three of those games would have pushed them to 10th in the league, level on points with Burnley.
The Eagles have scored just three goals in their last five games. Greenwood has scored four in the same period, which makes Palace fans wonder where their side would be had the teenager made the loan move down to South London at the start of the season.
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