EPL Roundup: Hodgson guides Palace to another win, likely EPL survival
It’s job completed for Roy Hodgson.
The former England coach was enticed out of retirement on the age of 75 in late March, tasked with protecting Crystal Palace within the Premier League because the crew plunged towards the relegation zone on the again of a 13-match winless run.
Hodgson, probably the most well-respected and well-traveled managers in soccer, clearly nonetheless has the magic contact.
A 4-3 win over West Ham on Saturday was Palace’s fourth victory in six matches because the arrival of Hodgson. With it, the crew moved onto 40 factors — the quantity lengthy related to being the security mark in England’s top-flight.
Surely, Palace is protected, given it’s 11 factors away from the relegation zone. Hodgson, it appears, was an impressed appointment.
“The sword has been removed from my head, it’s been removed from the players’ heads,” Hodgson stated.
“We will preserve the sword the place it’s so far as we’re involved, as a result of we wish to win video games.”
Unlike within the painful last days of Hodgson’s predecessor, Patrick Vieira, Palace is scoring objectives once more, with this swashbuckling efficiency coming quickly after a 5-1 win at Leeds.
The objectives conceded towards West Ham had been from corners, signifying that this might have been a way more cleaner win for Palace.
Palace recovered from going behind to Tomas Soucek’s ninth-minute opener by scoring three objectives in a 15-minute span by the thirtieth, by way of Jordan Ayew, Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp.
Michail Antonio lowered the deficit, Eberechi Eze stroked residence a penalty to revive the two-goal cushion for Palace, and Nayef Aguerd bundled in West Ham’s third aim to arrange a tense end at Selhurst Park.
STYLISH BRIGHTON
A 6-0 thrashing of Wolverhampton put the grins again on the faces of Brighton’s gamers.
It has been a troublesome few days for the south-coast membership, which was defeated on penalties by Manchester United within the FA Cup semifinals final weekend and misplaced at Nottingham Forest within the league in a weary show three days later.
Brighton supervisor Roberto De Zerbi rang the adjustments and so they labored, with the crew going 4-0 forward after 39 minutes and including two extra after the break. Deniz Undav, Danny Welbeck and Pascal Gross all scored twice.
Brighton stayed in eighth place however moved two factors behind Tottenham in fifth, and has two video games in hand. Finishing fifth or sixth would safe a Europa League qualification place, with Brighton looking for to play in Europe for the primary time in its 122-year historical past.
“It is an exciting time,” De Zerbi said. “We want to achieve our targets. We are fighting. Results are not everything in football, the style and DNA is important. But if we deserve to achieve our target, we have to achieve it.”
FOREST COLLAPSE
Nottingham Forest conceded within the fourth minute of stoppage time to lose at Brentford 2-1 and miss an opportunity to make an enormous leap away from the relegation zone.
Leading 1-0 till the 82nd minute, Forest let in an equalizer within the 82nd minute to Ivan Toney — his twentieth league aim — earlier than substitute Josh Dasilva grabbed a winner that was solely confirmed after a protracted VAR examine for offside.
Forest remained one level above the relegation zone and has 4 video games left, together with what seems to be a must-win match at residence towards last-placed Southampton subsequent.
“We have to stay along with the gamers greater than ever now after a outcome like that,” Forest supervisor Steve Cooper stated.
