£1M SAVIOUR
Bonus time for Roy with Palace surely safe
BEAMING Roy Hodgson dished out handshakes and hugs to players and backroom staff alike.
And presumably he treated Mrs H to a slap-up meal last night, too.
Because Crystal Palace will be a Premier League team again next season after spanking Leicester and their boss will be £1million richer in bonus money for keeping the Eagles up.
There will be those who point to the fact they are not mathematically safe just yet, but Hodgson isn’t interested in hearing from them.
“Miracles do happen and it is dangerous to become complacent, but it irritates me to hear managers hark on about mathematics,” he said.
“People can talk about mathematics but we are also talking about teams who haven’t won three games in a row all season.
“So while I accept it is possible we could be caught, we can accept we’ve done the hard work – and I also don’t expect us to lose our next two games.
“Even if we did, other teams are cutting each other up.”
Palace were excellent yesterday, with Wilfried Zaha, naturally, James McArthur (both below), Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Patrick van Aanholt and even Christian Benteke, from the penalty spot, all getting on the scoresheet. Those goals gave Palace their biggest win in the Premier League era and biggest in the top flight since December 1972. Leicester looked lethargic from the off and only Jamie Vardy went close to scoring for them, Joel Ward clearing his early effort off the line. James Tomkins had already seen a header cleared off the line by Kelechi Iheanacho at the other end in what was a sign of the siege that would be laid on the Leicester goal. Fine footwork from LoftusCheek, who danced away from three Leicester players, led to the opener after 17 minutes with Yohan Cabaye finding McArthur, whose backheel played in Zaha.
The Ivorian finished with a flourish.
Keeper Ben Hamer was picking the ball out of his net again 21 minutes later.
Van Aanholt found Zaha, he fed McArthur and the Scot span on the edge of the box before drilling his shot low past the Leicester keeper.
Any hopes of a Foxes fightback ended when Mike Dean sent off Marc Albrighton for a professional foul on Zaha.
“It was harsh,” Foxes boss Claude Puel said of the decision.
The points were safe with nine minutes left when Mamadou Sakho released Loftus-Cheek who rounded Hamer and slipped the ball into the net.
There was still time for two more goals.
Sub Jeffrey Schlupp, who won the Premier League with Leicester, saw his effort blocked by Hamer, and the ball fell to Van Aanholt who tucked home with a first-time effort.
And when Harry Maguire fouled Benteke the Belgian slipped as he took the spot-kick, ending on his backside, but it went in anyway.