Roy Hodgson: it’s up to Crystal Palace players to provide sufficient service to Christian Benteke

BY SAM SMITH AND ANDREW McSTEEN

Roy Hodgson has urged his Crystal Palace players to provide consistent service to Christian Benteke after the striker scored with a thumping header in the Eagles’ 4-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

Benteke met Luka Milivojevic’s cross in first-half added time to net his fifth goal of the season. It is already the Belgian’s best return since scoring 17 times in all competitions during the 2016-17 campaign.

Benteke’s goal had levelled the score after Gareth Bale’s opener. However, the Welshman struck again before Harry Kane scored twice.

Hodgson was pleased with the goal his side scored – and says it is up to Benteke’s teammates to supply the forward with chances.

The Palace boss said: “It was a very good goal. It was a goal, also, that gave us a lot of hope at half-time [of getting] back in the game because in the first half, despite the fact that they (Tottenham) had so many quality players playing good football, we coped with it relatively well.

“The [first] goal they got was one which comes from a clear technical mistake on our side, but after that unfortunately the second and third goals have shown what quality they have and we weren’t able to match it.

“It’s nice to see that Christian is getting goals now on a regular basis. It’s good to see him getting in the penalty area as he did to attack the crosses in that central area in the penalty area where he gets in front of people and gets his head on the ball.

“It will be up to us to make certain we get behind the defenders and play enough balls in there for him to give him a chance to get on the end of them.”