Palace boss Hodgson plays down front-runners talk

Roy Hodgson

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson is not getting carried away with his team’s good start.

Palace moved into the top four after Saturday’s 2-1 victory away to London rivals West Ham but dropped to sixth after Sunday’s fixtures.

Hodgson is aware that results can change very quickly especially when his Eagles squad is not as strong as the Premier League big guns.

“The question is how many points are we going to be behind after 19 games. I still fully believe in a championship being a marathon race,” he told the post-match press conference.

“It’s nice to start reasonably well and even be up with the front runners but you know full well you’ve got to keep up that pace.

“One of the things we don’t have is a big squad and in certain areas of our squad we are quite weak in terms of our ability to make substitutions or replace people.

“If we can keep our heads above water and get to the January transfer window I’m hoping we can do something about that and at least give ourselves a chance in the latter half of the season.”