Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson: I didn’t see Wilfried Zaha vs James Ward-Prowse flashpoint
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson admitted to being unaware of a flashpoint involving Wilfried Zaha and James Ward-Prowse as his side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Southampton at Selhurst Park.
Southampton secured a fourth successive away league win in the Premier League as goals either side of the interval from Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong consigned Palace to a first league defeat in six games which sees them slip to 11th in the table.
It was a flat performance from the hosts, and the frustrations of Zaha looked to have got the better of him when he petulantly poked Ward-Prowse in the face after the half-time whistle.
The players were separated by teammates and stewards, with referee Andre Marriner having missed the incident – but following a VAR review, Zaha avoided a red card for violent conduct.
When asked repeatedly about the heated confrontation between two old foes, an irate Hodgson said: „Are you going to still talk about it? I told you I didn’t see it, but you’re still going to talk about it.
„I don’t know what incident you’re talking about. The fact is, at half-time, I was talking to the players – and Wilfried Zaha was one of the 11 – about what we were going to try and do in the second half.
„I only just found out that I was going to get questions about an incident with Wilf, but I don’t know what that incident is. All I’ve heard is that VAR looked at this incident and decided there was nothing to do about it. That’s good enough for me.
„It was good enough for me also when they looked at an incident involving Luka Milivojevic and decided to send him off [in the FA Cup third round against Derby] and we’ve missed him for three games.“
Whilst the incident went unpunished, it could still be reviewed by the FA. There was plenty of needle between the pair following Zaha’s dismissal when the sides met in January 2019 at St Mary’s, when Marriner was also in charge.
Ward-Prowse squared up to the Ivorian following a challenge on that occasion, and after the Palace forward felt he ought to have been awarded a free-kick, he was sent off for showing dissent towards the match official.
Their latest confrontation set the tone for a feisty second period as tempers flared once more between Palace captain James Tomkins and Redmond in the closing stages – by which point Southampton had another impressive victory on the road sewn up.
Palace came into the fixture on a high, having earned a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Manchester City, but the momentum built from the resolve shown against the champions was sapped by the superior Saints.
When asked if those exertions at the Etihad had caught up with his side, Hodgson added: „Yes they did, but we can’t use that as an excuse because we had the same rest period between the last game as the other teams in the league. So it’s more a question where the same XI basically have had to fight their way through games.
„When you throw tough games into the bargain, I think it caught up with us tonight. I’m not thinking about the transfer window as much as I’m thinking about recovering six players.
„That’s a lot to be missing from your squad, and I’m not talking about six who never play. We’re talking about Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend, Jeffrey Schlupp, Mamadou Sakho, Patrick van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic. All these guys normally play in the team.
„They’ll be like new players when they come back because we’ve been doing without them for the last four or five weeks.“
What’s next?
Crystal Palace host Sheffield United at Selhurst Park on February 1; kick-off 3pm.
Southampton are in FA Cup fourth round action this Saturday at 3pm as Tottenham visit St Mary’s before Saints return to Premier League duty on February 1 away to Liverpool at the same kick-off time.
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
.
