BENTEKE’S BLANKER
Eagles hitman missing the mark at Selhurst
CRYSTAL PALACE are treading water – and Christian Benteke needs to start making a bigger splash to save them from drowning.
Benteke did win the penalty from which Luka Milivojevic rescued a point for Palace after Mo Diame’s opener for Newcastle.
But the Eagles striker can’t buy a goal at home at the moment and has now failed to score in any of the 11 league games he has played at Selhurst Park this season.
You have to go back nine months for his last goal there, and that is a big worry for a team badly lacking firepower and who wasted chance after chance against Newcastle.
Benteke’s scoreless run at Selhurst is made even worse by the fact he has attempted 25 shots in that time, the most of any player without a home goal in the whole league.
The visitors will be the happier of the two sides, with Rafa Benitez continuing to hold the upper hand over Roy Hodgson.
Benitez has lost only once in seven games against Hodgson teams, winning on three occasions, but Newcastle remain only a point above the bottom three.
Palace are only three points clear themselves and will need a lot more from Benteke than CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Hennessey 6; Fosu-Mensah 6, Tomkins 5, Kelly 5 (Sakho 45, 6), Van Aanholt 7; Townsend 6, Milivojevic 7, Cabaye 7, McArthur 6; Benteke 4, ZAHA 7. Subs: Henry, Ward, Sorloth, Lee, Souare, Riedewald. UP NEXT: Everton (a), Premier League, Saturday. NEWCASTLE (4-2-3-1): DARLOW 8; Yedlin 6, Clark 6, Lascelles 6, Dummett 6; Shelvey 6, Diame 7 (Hayden 65, 6); Ritchie 6, Perez 6 (Merino 80), Kenedy 7 (Atsu 57, 6); Gayle 6. Subs: Dubravka, Murphy, Manquillo, Lejeune. UP NEXT: Manchester United (h), Premier League, Sunday. Referee: Andre Marriner 6. YOU TURN: Who joined Palace for £13m in 2016 after scoring four goals in 13 appearances for Newcastle? the measly two goals he has scored all season if they want to stay up.
Hodgson brought in Alexander Sorloth to put pressure on him, but the Norwegian didn’t get off the bench and how much someone can add having not played competitive football since November remains to be seen.
Palace made a reasonable start when Patrick van Aanholt raced forward and played Benteke clean through with a peach of a pass.
But the Belgian never looked confident he would score one-on-one with the excellent Karl Darlow and allowed the Toon keeper to save.
Shortly afterwards Palace shot themselves in the foot with some truly woeful defending from a Newcastle corner.
Kenedy swung it in and ended up with his second assist in as many games after joining on loan from Chelsea when Diame ghosted in at the far post to score from close range.
But it was a comedy of errors from Palace, with Martin Kelly losing him, Milivojevic failing to clear and James Tomkins failing to recover in time as the unmarked Diame stabbed it home.
It was also the first goal Newcastle had managed in the first half of a game since December 23.
Wilfried Zaha tried to respond but his shot was blocked by Ciaran Clark and Darlow then made a great save to deny Kenedy. Palace came