UNBELIEVABLE BENTEKKERS!
Christian’s great form is good news for Palace, but not for loan signing Mateta
C PALACE WEST BROM
ROY HODGSON will give Christian Benteke a glowing report when he receives his regular call from Roberto Martinez.
But the Crystal Palace manager admits the Belgium striker’s improved displays have meant frustration for January loan signing JeanPhilippe Mateta.
The Eagles boss is impressed with the way Benteke responded to Mateta’s arrival from Mainz despite Palace’s recent struggles in front of goal. He said: “He’s doing exactly what all players in his situation at the moment should be doing. They have to be given the chance but once they have the opportunity it’s very important they grasp it.”
Belgium boss Martinez has kept faith with Benteke and Hodgson is again expecting the phone to ring ahead of this month’s World Cup qualifiers.
He said: “Roberto normally rings me to ask about how well Christian and Michy Batshuayi are doing.
“I think it would be unfair to suggest the reason Christian has done quite well in the last few games is down to the fact he wants to play for Belgium.
“But obviously I’m pretty certain he is hoping he will keep his current form going and he will keep doing well enough so that when Roberto watches all his games and sees him play, he might feel it’s the right thing to do to give him a chance to play for Belgium as well.”
Mateta has made just two starts since his switch - scoring a stunning back-heel at Brighton - and will again be on the bench when West Brom visit today. Hodgson said: “The only reason he has not been starting is his arrival has coincided with a resurgence in form of Christian Benteke.
“When Christian is playing we prefer a different type of centre-forward alongside him. It’s purely a matter of competition.
“I don’t see my way clear at the moment to play them both together. So if Christian plays, it means Mateta has to start on the bench.”
Hodgson and a dozen of his senior players are out of contract this summer but he insists any decision on deals will have to wait until Palace are safe.
He said: “It’s all about making certain we get ourselves into a position where we can perhaps feel even more comfortable than we do at the moment with regard to our status next season. And that will be the time I’m sure for club to look into these contract situations.”
MIKE WALTERS INSIDE FOOTBALL.. & OUTSIDE THE BOX
BEHIND every outrageous fortune lies a great crime.
And as manager Graham Potter contemplated Brighton and Hove Albion’s freakish litany of star-crossed defeats this season, the critical mystery remained unsolved. Have the Seagulls made their own luck – or have they simply not been good enough to avoid being dragged into another relegation battle? On current form, Potter would get seven years’ bad luck for breaking a mirror. And his sentence would be increased to 10 years on appeal. But as he surveyed Albion’s trail of innovative setbacks, Potter said: “It drives you insane – but most of the planet’s population would still swap places with me.”
It is no exaggeration to say Brighton have turned the hard-luck story into an art form this season.
They managed to lose 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace despite an overwhelming 25-3 shot count in their favour, the most audacious heist since Hatton Garden (Christian Benteke nets for the Eagles, below).
They managed to lose 1-0 at West Brom after missing two penalties and Lewis Dunk’s ‘equaliser’ from a quickly-taken free-kick being scrubbed out in a VAR farce.
They managed to lose at home to Manchester
United from a penalty in the
100th minute after referee
Chris Kavanagh had blown the final whistle.
Even when they managed a first win at Liverpool in 37 years, the Seagulls merely joined an extended cast – currently six clubs in a row, including two of their bottom-six rivals – who left Anfield with the loot.
Every team has its issues with injuries, but to lose Tariq Lamptey, Adam Webster and Solly March with long-term problems hit the Seagulls right above the beak. And number-crunchers who come with an ‘expected points’ index, based on chances created, reckon Albion should have collected 27 points from 14 home games at the Amex. They have won just once.
Potter, 45, is the bloke who’s never won more than a tenner on the lottery or come up trumps in the office Grand National sweepstake – but he refuses to bemoan his lot.
“We certainly can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves,” he said, ahead of tomorrow’s trundle along the south coast to Southampton.
“What we have to understand is there’s a fight, a struggle, and the margins in this League are so fine that clearly it would benefit anybody to be lucky.
“There’s a saying that goes, ‘I’d rather be lucky than good’, but we can only focus on keeping our performance levels high, making sure the team looks together and keeps a sense of direction.
“It’s the beautiful game of football – it drives you insane but that’s why we love it.
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‘I think a large percentage of people on the planet would fancy sitting in my chair’
SEAN DYCHE believes Burnley are finally getting a change of luck – touch Wood.
The Clarets mugged a point from Arsenal last week after a calamitous ball from Granit Xhaka struck striker Chris Wood (celebrating, above) and flew into the net.
Dyche reckons that, when it comes to getting their name on the scoresheet, strikers aren’t too picky and will take any stroke of good fortune that comes their way.
“Goalscorers will take a goal however it comes,” he said of Wood, who is Burnley’s top scorer with five goals.
“At the end of the season the stats don’t say what style of goal it was, they just say how many you’ve got, so strikers don’t really care.
“I don’t think he’s got a lack of belief in scoring goals. He’s working hard for the team, but yeah, it’s another goal for him and he’ll be delighted whatever way they come.”
Dyche (below) knows his side will have a tough task shackling Everton’s front two, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, at Goodison this evening. Calvert-Lewin has scored 13 Premier League goals this season and his strike partner Richarlison’s 12 goals this term include six in the top flight. In other words the two have 19 league goals between them – struggling Burnley have only 20.
Dyche said: “Fair play to those two. They’ve really taken it up. Let’s put it this way, it’s very helpful if
PROBABLE TEAMS
EVERTON: Pickford, Godfrey, Holgate, Keane, Digne; Davies, Allan, Gomes, Sigurdsson, Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison
BURNLEY: Pope. Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor. Gudmundsson, Westwood, Brownhill, McNeil. Vydra, Wood
REFEREE: Jon Moss
TV Sky Sports 5.30pm you’ve got players up front who are scoring loads of goals. That’s something I definitely know about football. It’s helpful!”
The Turf Moor boss does not subscribe to the view that any away game at a bigger club is a bit of a free hit for his side, adding: “I get it that there’s an outside view that certain games bring a higher level of expectation on the home side. And you would imagine that a team of Everton’s stature will be favourites against us.
“But we certainly don’t go in thinking we’ve got an added advantage because the pressure is on the opposition. We go into every game with the right mentality, knowing how tough it’s going to be, and that is certainly the case going to Everton.”
The Blues have won three of their last four games and Dyche added: “They have had one or two hiccups, but they are going to be seen as favourites. It’s up to us to try to disprove that.”