Roy Hodgson: Crystal Palace safety looks to be clinched after hammering Leicester

By Sam Smith

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson feels Premier League safety is all but confirmed following his side’s emphatic 5-0 victory against Leicester City.

The Eagles moved up to 11th on 38 points thanks to goals from Wilfried Zaha, James McArthur, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Patrick van Aanholt and Christian Benteke. The five goals also means they have the best goal difference in the bottom half of the top-flight with minus 13.

Hodgson said: “I honestly thought that even if we got to 36 points with a good goal difference that we would have a good chance of staying up, so 38 with a good goal difference should be okay. The good goal difference gives me enormous satisfaction.

“(To celebrate) is dangerous to some extent because miracles can happen. We’re probably on the cusp of a miracle ourselves and I’m sure we have been on the receiving end of one in the past.

“It is dangerous to start thinking we can relax and become complacent, but on the other hand you get some managers harping on about mathematical possibilities (which I don’t agree with) – to be honest it would take so many things to happen (for Palace to go down).

“Don’t forget that Stoke play Swansea and certainly Southampton play Swansea ,so they can’t all win and are all below us at the moment.”