Having lost another player to injury, Yohan Cabaye, during the Southampton defeat Sam Allardyce has said Crystal Palace’s options are ‘thin on the ground’ for the meeting with Arsenal on Monday.
Cabaye, replaced by Bakary Sako at half time against Southampton on Wednesday, will miss the visit of Arsenal to Selhurst Park along with several others.
Allardyce was quoted by Sky Sports as saying.
‘Patrick van Aanholt, James Tomkins, Pape Souare, Connor Wickham, Loic Remy and Fraizer Campbell are all injured and now Yohan.’
James McArthur could return, despite his lack of games, but Joe Ledley will be available.
‘We’re thin on the ground now. James McArthur may be back for Arsenal, but he’s not played a huge amount since his back spasms. Joe Ledley is back after birth of his child,’ added Allardyce.
Palace turned to Allardyce as he’s become a past master of keeping sides in the Premier League having achieved this with Bolton, Blackburn, West Ham and Sunderland.
With the boss saying Palace DO have the hardest run-in we’ll have to make sure we ‘hold our nerve’ in the final games – Allardyce also admitted the Eagles would have been ‘dead and buried’ already but for the four game winning run.
‘Who can hold their nerve usually decides staying up. You’re into single figure games, the bell starts ringing. Time to stand up. It’s not “arguably” we’ve got the hardest run-in, we “have” got the hardest run-in. If we hadn’t done what we’ve done [win four games in a row], we’d be dead and buried now. This is tough, particularly mentally. Pressure builds.’
However, despite the Southampton defeat Allardyce remains confident that Palace can beat anyone, as had already been proven by the win at Chelsea last Saturday, so we’ll take such thoughts forward.
Then again the former England boss is well aware it’s tough no matter who we play.
‘We shouldn’t have let that happen last night. We couldn’t find the passing movement we found at Chelsea or West Brom to exploit counters. We’ve proven on any given day we can beat anyone. That gives us confidence. But it’s just as tough to beat Burnley as it is United.’
