Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Hodgson noted Palace’s tough schedule: “Playing away to West Bromwich Albion and then having to play against Tottenham, who were top of the league at the time, then West Ham who were top five when we played them and now Liverpool who are once again top of the table.
“That’s a very tough run of fixtures but the good thing is that we’re going into them with some belief that we know what we’re good at and we’re capable of producing good performances against teams of that quality.”
Hodgson said successive hard-fought draws against Spurs and West Ham have given the team a platform to build on: “It’s good to being going into a game of this nature with some points in the bag after three performances that we’re very happy with.
“But of course this game presents new challenges. For the second weekend in a row we meet the team that’s on top of the table and teams are on top of the table for a reason: because they’ve got exceptional quality.”
Palace last beat Liverpool in 2017, but the manager said that performances against the top teams were often better than results suggest.
“There have been lots and lots of close occasions and lots where if we haven’t taken the points from the games, we believe we should have done thanks to the performance that we’ve given.”
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