“Certainly the seven games in a row of victories – and often victories where they’re not conceding goals or conceding many goal chances – that’s always a worry for an opponent like ourselves,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“If they’re not conceding goals, they’re always likely to score with the quality of players they have to choose from. It’s going to be a very very tough ask for us.
“Am I looking forward to going there? Well, not really, because I know it’s going to be a very hard ask for us. You have to show every bit as much discipline, energy and effort that we put into tonight’s game. We have to go and do it again.”
However, Hodgson was keen to stress the determination of his players to secure another impressive result in Manchester.
“One should be looking forward to it because it’s a fantastic stadium and we’re playing against a fantastic team, and the reason we’re in the Premier League really is to play in these games.
“It would be another feather in the cap because I don’t think too many people will be expecting us to go there and beat them, so we go there very much as underdogs. But I’d like to think they will respect us, they will repect what we try and do and the way we try and play so they won’t take the game lightly.
“It’s up to us to make sure we don’t allow them to take the game lightly with the quality of our performances.”
Palace’s league form until now has encouraged the manager to think that players are beginning to play without feeling the pressure.
“It’s nice to know that there’s a little bit more slack that you can cut the players. Maybe they will feel they can try things a little bit more and not be so devastated if it doesn’t go their way.”
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