“As far as I’m concerned, Wolves are the same team they were last year,” he said in his pre-match press conference, “and we’ll be preparing to play against them in the same way as we did last year when they were really flying high in the table.
“They did brilliantly well last year and sort of took the league by storm. This year they’ve not been able to take the league by storm but they are still a very good team.
“The qualities they had last year to bring them to the top echelons of our league have not worked out for them just now, but there’s nothing to say that in the next half of the season they won’t find that form again, or maybe find that luck that they need and climb the table.”
Palace and Wolves sit level on points in the Premier League table, with identical records so far this season.
“It’s a strange period at the minute,” Hodgson said. “Wolves, like ourselves, have found themselves in a period where you meet a lot of the top teams and you don’t find it as easy to get the results that you would like.
“But these things even out over the season if you can keep your head and keep playing the right kind of football.”
When asked about Wolves’ speed in attack, Hodgson responded: “We’re not exactly short of pace in the team ourselves.
“If I was arguing with a Wolves fan who was boasting about how many fast players they have or how dangerous they are, I think I’d count in a few of our own.”
The manager also gave an update on Ray Lewington, who is still isolating after testing positive for coronavirus.
“I speak to him every day,” he said. “He’s definitely feeling better...Most importantly, he still has a period to go before he’s allowed to test again by completing his isolation. But fortunately, he definitely feels an awful lot better than he did four or five days ago.
“He’s not feeling himself, and he does make clear – and I should point this out to everybody – that this isn’t a virus to be taken lightly in any way shape or form. It is definitely something you don’t want to get, even if you are as fit as Ray is and always has been.”
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