Hodgson praises players for fighting back after setback
Roy Hodgson praised his Crystal Palace players’ response in falling behind to a goal that should not have stood by recovering to draw 2-2 at home to Arsenal.
Luka Milivojevic’s second penalty - which came after he saw Jordan Pickford save one in last week’s defeat at Everton when the score remained 0-0 - secured a valuable point and denied Arsenal a 12th successive victory.
He had earlier given them the lead before watching Granit Xhaka’s fine free-kick, and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s close-range finish following Alexandre Lacazette’s handball, threaten to undermine what had been a significantly improved performance.
The point came at a good time ahead of next month’s Premier League fixtures against Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United, but it could have been more but for Lacazette’s intervention.
Hodgson said; “It wasn’t exactly a touch of the hand, but one which helped the ball to the player who scored.
“It was tremendous that the players came back from that.
“It’s not easy having led at the interval and then found ourselves trailing 2-1. To find ourselves behind, but come back to force an equaliser; the players deserve a lot of praise.
“Our offensive players were more noticeable than Arsenal’s, and that’s great credit to my team.
“Two good pieces of play led to Arsenal being forced to commit a foul in the penalty area.
“For the two goals, the amount of possession we had in the final third, two goals is fairly scant reward.”