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Crystal Palace v Arsenal Saturday 11th January 2020 // 12:30pm

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ROY HODGSON

We are facing a truly challenging return to Premier League football this afternoon as I find myself in one of the most astounding and taxing periods I have ever faced in my career as a manager. To have 11 first-team players injured at the final whistle following our game with Derby County was simply astonishing. In terms of sheer numbers, I’ve never known an injury situation like this before. In such circumstances, simply ‘getting by’ would be a commendable achievement but, discounting our exit from the FA Cup last Sunday, the Crystal Palace squad have succeeded remarkably well. From our last eight fixtures, we have lost just once – collecting 13 points in the process. Over much of this time we have been obliged to field players out of position or for a frequency of matches they were probably not ready to play. But the players have been a credit to themselves and have alleviated some of the strain I and my fellow

coaches are under by performing so well regardless of the position in which they have been asked to play. Now we are into January, it is time to support the team where needed and continue our efforts this season as a galvanised, reinforced group. Everyone at the club is certainly behind that intention. Before turning my attention to today’s opposition, I must first comment on our match with Derby County. Defeat brings with it great disappointment in any competition and the squad, staff and I were frustrated not to progress further in the FA Cup. The FA Cup is a fine tournament and it is one the team and I were fully committed to. However, we must remember that the Premier League is our primary concern and the FA Cup game fell at a time when our team options were severely limited. Our positive Premier League record faces a tough hurdle today, with Arsenal making their first visit

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to Selhurst Park under new manager, Mikel Arteta. I look forward to the challenge of facing his team and hope that we can repeat the performance earlier this season when we earned a deserved 2-2 draw at the Emirates. Today’s match will be as difficult, if not harder, as again we will be forced to field a team hit by injury, though I hope having nearly a full week to prepare will see the squad in better shape to play than in previous matches. This afternoon is the first time since early December that we’ve had at least five days separating games and it is the beginning of the fixture schedule returning to normal. I am hopeful that the fitness and size of our squad will be continually improving and the competition for places in the team will again return to normal. Until then, your support means more than ever to us and we will be relying on you today to give the team that added boost. Enjoy the game.

Firstly, I would like to extend a welcome to Mikel Arteta, his Arsenal squad and to each and every Crystal Palace fan here at Selhurst Park today.

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Dutch players that were coming in, my friend Timothy Fosu-Mensah joined and Ruben Loftus-Cheek came in as well. “And even Frank’s assistant manager, Orlando Trustfull, helped me out a lot in the Academy at Ajax as well.” When Riedewald lists all the motives behind leaving behind Amsterdam for Croydon, it’s hard not to sympathise with what the situation must’ve been like for Riedewald when De Boer was released by Palace just a handful of games into the 2017/18 season. But that is football and Riedewald has no regrets: “For me, I thought it was the right option and I don’t regret it because when I came here I saw what kind of club it was: the fans are amazing, it’s a nice stadium and the atmosphere is great. It’s a warm club and I want to repay my price to the fans. “I live in south east London. I am happy here. When I drive to the club I am always arriving with a smile, I am happy to be here. I am not angry at this club. I enjoy London, it’s a big city. I still haven’t seen everything. But I think it when I drive and I am looking out the window I see so many events or restaurants and things I’d love to do. It’s a little bit similar to where I am from, Amsterdam, but it is just 10 times bigger!” Arriving as a 19-year-old, Riedewald’s decision to keep

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his head down, remain focussed and committed to Palace in any capacity he was required is admirable. It is optimised by his decision to stop returning home to the Netherlands, he reveals: “I used to go home a lot in my first year. But after that I thought it was better to stay here more, get my own house and learn the language more.” The next revelation from Riedewald is one that we struggled to comprehend: “I never had English lessons. I just picked up the language watching Netflix and movies. I have an older brother and he used to watch a lot of American and black-comedy movies and I started learning from there. “Game of Thrones helped a lot.” Talk then strays to the TV show itself and you can sense Wilfried Zaha and Riedewald have spent more than a few hours on the long away journeys discussing the HBO show: “The last season they were hyping it up and they just lost it. Wilf loves it as well, we talk about it. It’s more of a lifestyle because you get so involved in the families.” The final season of Game of Thrones was adapted from the novels: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. For Riedewald, the dreams of spring are very much here, and requests for a loan deal are now confined to yesteryear’s wintry winds.

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COPERS Sebastian Frej

A behind the scenes look at first-team training, with Roy Hodgson and his coaching staff putting the squad through their paces ahead of todayâ€™s clash with the Gunners.

WILFRIED ZAHA

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EAGLE EYE WITH PALACE TV'S CHRIS GRIERSON

Well here we are again: another transfer window. I think I banged on about how a transfer is not official until the club announces it and that we always announce as soon as the paperwork is finalised in my first column this season, so I won’t do that again. But if you’re a fan of a particular ilk, feel free to read it again before you tweet this month! I enjoy the January window more than the summer one because it’s so short. So many more baseless rumours squeezed in to 31 days. Lovely stuff. Also, it’s an 11pm deadline. I understand why they moved the summer one to 5pm, as it’s so close to the first game of the season. But there’s something brilliant about seeing colleagues turn into monsters when they’re still airbrushing creases out of photos and choosing naff music tracks at 2am.

The Mamadou Sakho loan in 2017 broke the record for the latest finish. We got the twohour extension at 11pm and the paperwork was submitted at 1am. Which was when I interviewed him and photography was done. Once everything had been finished we left the office at 4am with tired eyes and a belly full of takeaway pizza.

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That was also an interesting one because it was a matchday. The team were playing at Bournemouth that night. Fortunately, they were victorious, which took the edge off the pain of Luka Milivojevic’s agent releasing photos of him in the Palace shirt before the deal was complete! A common issue but it’s so hard stopping them taking photos on

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their phone as you don’t want to rock the boat before signatures have dried on the contract. In the same window we got to do one of my favourite types of transfer interview, an ‘on the road’ one. Jeffrey Schlupp was having a medical at a swanky clinic on Harley Street, so we sped there in the ‘mediamobile’ (a competitively-priced app-based taxi) to capture the interview and photographs. We chatted to him in front of some greenery, which seemed nice at the time but ended up looking like he was on the set of Little Shop of Horrors. There’s also a great behind the scenes shot that shows the work experience boy (what a week he had!) and social media manager holding up our travelling ad board.

Another memorable transfer interview was Alex McCarthy. We met him in Soho, but just when we were about to do the interview and photos the fire alarm went off. It continued to go off for over an hour, meaning we couldn’t get anything done. Terry Byfield kindly got him a sandwich and banana from Greggs to apologise for the delay, but in the end we all had to dash off to Heathrow for our flight to Cape Town for pre-season. A blessing in disguise really as the interview ended up happening with the beautiful Table Mountain in the background! There was also plenty of panic when a picture of him getting off the team coach being posted on our Twitter account before he’d officially signed. Sorry for

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bringing this up again if you’re reading, Sam Jordan… Honourable mentions also go to an iconic shot of Diego Cavalieri doing the Christ the Redeemer pose in front of the Holmesdale with me out of shot on my knees pulling his shirt to get rid of creases and the time I was sat in a chair waiting for a new signing to come in to do his interview but instead saw a shot of him on Sky Sports News leaving the building, never to return.

Head to eagles.cpfc.co.uk or the CPFC app to watch all the behind the scenes content.

"ONCE EVERYTHING HAD BEEN FINISHED WE LEFT THE OFFICE AT 4AM WITH TIRED EYES AND A BELLY FULL OF TAKEAWAY PIZZA"

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FANTASY FIVE Throughout this season, we are asking the Palace squad for the 5-a-side team they’d pick based on a certain criteria.

JOHN TERRY “A legend of the game.”

RIO FERDINAND “Huge fan of his growing up. And alongside Terry at the back they’d be a great partnership.”

FRANK LAMPARD “Loves scoring all sorts of goals and that will come in handy in 5-a-side; a game that you’ll need to be able to score tap-ins and long rangers.”

THIERRY HENRY “Admired him growing up; he had everything.”

DIDIER DROGBA “Idol.”

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This week, we asked James Daly to choose five Premier League players he enjoyed watching growing up.

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ASHLEE HINCKS

I’ve been out since 8th September and I’ve now finally received my date for surgery which isn’t until 10th March. However, despite that being a couple of months away, it is nice to have it confirmed as it gives me a focus. A long-term injury is frustrating enough but having to wait for the surgery adds to those frustrations because once I have the operation it will be between six to nine months before I’m back out there with the team. If I was at the rehabilitation stage already then I’d find it easier because you can set yourself goals in terms of walking, running, lifting weights but for now it is a waiting game. Fortunately, at the age of 31, I am relieved to say this is my first long-term injury. And the biggest struggle for me has been having no one to blame. This was just a freak incident that occurred when I sent in a cross against Lewes. In a weird

way, I’d have rather been clattered by an opponent. Despite my injury, I’ve been keeping myself busy in regards to being around the team – Dean has been great in keeping me involved. I still attend games to support my teammates, and my role as vicecaptain is one I take seriously and enjoy. Although I’m not out there on the pitch I still find I am able to take an active role. It’s been quite an eye-opener for me watching from the sidelines for such a sustained period of time; you see the game completely differently. I would say it has given me a greater appreciation of all my teammates because I am able to get a vantage point of the whole pitch – I’m a No.9 so naturally most of my time is spent in the final-third and therefore I usually have a limited view. My injury has actually opened up a couple of other doors for me and I recently did co-commentary with Mark

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Bright for our Women’s Weekend game against London City Lionesses. What a great experience that was. Mark was lovely and passionate about the game and the squad. Since Mark last covered a game we’ve had quite a large squad overhaul so I enjoyed discussing the exciting changes around the squad with him and bringing him up to speed with the new players that have joined. In particular, new players Annabel Johnson, Amy Goddard and Ashleigh Goddard have been fantastic for us. But also important players for us from last season in the likes of Andria Georgiou have continued to impress. We are massively improved on last season and I am gutted to not be a part of it. Last season we struggled to create opportunities and my role as the No.9 was to be the first line of defence. However, this campaign we are creating plenty of chances and I am itching to get back out there and get on the end of them.

Dean Davenport and the club have been fantastic during my injury lay-off. The situation is different in the women’s game but Palace and the manager have done everything within their capabilities to help me.