Haunted Hodgson feels an Icy chill
SIGGY STRIKES AGAIN AFTER KILLING ROY’S EURO DREAM WITH ICELAND
ROY HODGSON’S Icelandic nightmare returned as Gylfi Sigurdsson sparked Crystal Palace’s downfall.
Siggy was one of the instigators of Hodgson’s horror show when England crashed out of the Euros to Iceland. And the Palace boss had barely taken refuge in the technical area after the break before watching his side implode. James Tomkins made a hash of an attempted headed clearance from a long ball, Oumar Niasse’s presence benefiting Sigurdsson, who promptly fired low, his shot taking a deflection off the hapless Tomkins and beating Wayne Hennessey’s despairing dive within 45 seconds of the restart.
Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice? Even now the events of that fateful day for the Three Lions in France is a raw subject for the Palace boss.
Sigurdsson inspired his side in that 2-1 Icelandic shock in Nice which led to Hodgson losing his job.
He was succeeded by the man standing just 10 feet away yesterday, Sam Allardyce who had England problems of his own – lasting just one game before being caught in a newspaper sting.
This time it was Hodgson and Palace who were left entangled in a trap of their own making, falling apart at the seams after an encouraging opening.
Six minutes after Sigurdsson’s strike it was 2-0 as Niasse, the one-time nomad with no dressingroom locker, continued his repatriation. He headed in from a Cuco Martina cross after being left completely unmarked.
It was beginning to be
more hurtful than Big Sam’s mocking of the Palace manager’s speech impediment when he called him Woy.
Last week Allardyce had deemed his side’s display “pathetic, crap”.
Now he beamed: “We were very good. It was a polished display. We took our chances and sent our fans home happy.” There was no X factor from poor Palace and certainly no Z factor. Incredibly they haven’t won a league game since September 2016 without Wilfried Zaha in the line-up.
The talismanic forward has been ruled out through
Palace villain Benteke looks like a striker bereft of goals and confidence
injury for a month – not ideal when there’s a hectic scramble going on to avoid relegation. For Everton, Niasse is doing a job and is keeping £27million Cenk Tosun on the bench.
The Senegal star was instrumental in Everton’s third, his close-range effort palmed out by Hennessey but promptly seized upon by Sigurdsson to find Tom Davies for a side-footed finish.
Palace pulled one back from the penalty spot when Ashley Williams handled, Luka Milivojevic keeping his cool. Hodgson said: “I can’t complain about our performance. It’s about goals and we made mistakes and were punished.” But there was no cutting edge, the biggest culprit being Christian Benteke – a striker bereft of goals and confidence.
It’s two in the Premier League this term and no wonder as he twice failed with inviting headers.
When he did attempt to throw his considerable weight around he forced Jordan Pickford to drop the the ball over his line – but it was judged illegal by referee Jon Moss.
That was about as difficult as it got for Moss who was back on Merseyside, with assistant Edward Smart, after the controversies of the Liverpool v Tottenham game six days earlier.
Eliaquim Mangala hadn’t exactly endeared himself to the Everton fans with his shaky display in the shambolic 5-1 surrender at Arsenal.
After just eight minutes he did little to change that with a nervy back-pass which placed Pickford under pressure, but Yohan Cabaye couldn’t benefit.
And there wasn’t an outpouring of grief from the stands when Mangala, on loan from Manchester City, limped off before the break.