James McArthur: Media focus is on lack of Palace goals – it’s not something players are focused on

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

James McArthur reckons the talk of a lack of goals in Crystal Palace’s team is a focus for the media – and not Roy Hodgson’s players.

Only Watford (eight) have scored fewer in the Premier League than the Eagles (10). And the South London club have failed to net in three of their last four top-flight fixtures, although in mitigation they have been during a tough run which has seen them lose 2-0 to Manchester City, Leicester City and Chelsea.

Palace are at home to league leaders Liverpool today and despite their scoring deficiencies they are 12th in the table and seven points clear of the bottom three.

“It is more built up in the media that we need to start scoring more goals,” said McArthur. “We’re relatively happy where we are in the table with the run of games we’ve had. When we come through these games we are going to have a run where realistically there are a lot of points we’re capable of getting.

“Every game is hard, but we don’t put too much pressure on ourselves about who needs to score.”

Palace have enjoyed some famous results over Liverpool but the Merseyside outfit are unbeaten in the last eight meetings and boast a livewire front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.

“That’s the Premier League – all the top sides have got a top two or three with superb quality,” said McArthur. “You need to be on it – if not they punish you. If you try to concentrate on one then the other person hurts you.

“I’m confident we can give them a very good game.”

PICTURE BY KEITH GILLARD