Sako keeps Hodgson right on the money as Dyche loses out again
PLAY like this week in, week out and Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson may as well start thinking about how to spend that £1million-plus Premier League survival bonus.
Hodgson’s Palace deserved this win at Selhurst Park. They were all over Sean Dyche’s Burnley like a cheap suit in the first half then slugged it out in the second after the goals had not followed their fine play.
Since Dyche declared he was the ‘proudest man in Proudsville’ in December, Burnley have suffered four defeats, three draws and won none. They are in a difficult spell.
They still sit seventh in the table, of course, and would have snapped hands off if offered that in the summer after 23 fixtures. That is largely why their manager is not worrying too much.
‘It is a tough run,’ Dyche said. ‘I’m not overly disappointed. I’m certainly not disappointed when you look at the league table.
‘We have to make them (the results) come our way. We can’t say, “Oh, we will wait for it to come our way”. No. The Premier League is not like that. It’s just not like that.’
As for Palace, Bakary Sako’s winner pushes them five points clear of the relegation zone. What a job 70-year-old Hodgson has done here.
It was a 1-0 loss to Burnley in September that brought Frank de Boer’s time in charge of the Eagles to an end.
At the start of October, Palace had suffered seven losses from seven games and not scored a single goal. Now, they are 12th. ‘I am very careful about statistics and certainly I have no desire to start celebrating here in the middle of January,’ Hodgson said.
‘I said when I came here that the only thing what matters to me is where we are on the final day in May. The only thing that interests me is being one place above the relegation zone. Anything more than that would be a huge bonus.’ As well as the £1m of course. After quarter of an hour, the game was waiting for its first shot on target. Sako delivered it and scored.
Sako had impressed against Brighton in the FA Cup last week and repaid Hodgson’s faith in him with a goal on his first Premier League start since September.
He cut inside and fired a low shot which went through the legs of James Tarkowski and beat Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope.
Palace would have scored a second soon after, were it not for heroic defending by the visitors’ captain Ben Mee.
Wilfried Zaha had capitalised on a poor headed back-pass and clipped the ball over Pope, leaving it trickling through the six-yard box. James McArthur looked certain to score a tap-in but Mee managed to clear from underneath his own crossbar.
After half hour, Palace had attempted five shots. Burnley, zero. Their first came in the 37th minute — an off-target header by Sam Vokes.
Shortly before the break, a volley by Sako went just wide of the far corner. Burnley had not been at the races and Dyche would have to give them a talking-to at half-time.
With 20 minutes to go, they were still only a goal away.
They came close when Ashley Barnes got to a bouncing ball just before Wayne Hennessey, but the Palace goalkeeper produced the save.
Zaha was then involved in a clash with Charlie Taylor after crashing into the pitch-side television camera. He felt Taylor shoved him and the pacy winger proceeded to throw his toys out of the pram. Michael Oliver showed the Burnley youngster a yellow card. And that was that.
A third successive defeat in 2018 for Dyche’s Burnley and another step towards safety for Hodgson’s Palace.