Roy Hodgson may not have much time left as Crystal Palace manager, and he may not have much affection from the club’s supporters these days, but he still has Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze. And as long as those two remain in his team, he will always have hope.
Between them, Olise and Eze might just have kept Hodgson in his job. Two assists and a goal for Olise, and two goals for Eze, led to three crucial points for Palace, who had won just one of their previous 10 league matches before this thrilling meeting with Sheffield United.
The visitors, it is safe to say, did not have any players capable of matching Olise and Eze’s remarkable technical quality. They did not have any answers to those two Palace forwards, either, as they fell to defeat despite twice taking the lead in the first half. With each passing week, relegation appears more and more inevitable for Chris Wilder’s side.
For Palace it was hardly the most convincing showing, as Ben Brereton Diaz and James McAtee both breached Hodgson’s defence. But it was at least fun, at times, and there was no shortage of enjoyment to be found in the feet of Olise and Eze, who are laughably far ahead of their team-mates when it comes to footballing ability.
Such is Hodgson’s luck at the moment, both those attackers picked up knocks in the second half. Olise limped off after scoring the third, a superb strike from range, and Eze followed him a few minutes later. A concerning sight for all of a Palace persuasion, especially Hodgson as he battles growing discontent among the club’s supporters.
