"It was good to win without him and we deserved to win without him."
Saturday 15 December 2018 19:56, UK
Roy Hodgson was delighted to see Crystal Palace secure their first Premier League victory without Wilfried Zaha in over two years by beating Leicester 1-0 at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Luka Milivojevic's superb first-half strike saw Palace end the run of 13 league defeats that had come when Zaha, who was suspended for the visit of Leicester, was unavailable, dating back to a 3-2 win against Sunderland in September 2016.
When asked about ending the streak, Hodgson told Sky Sports: "I've not really given it too much thought to be honest because it's one of those facts that I get hit with.
"They mention 13 games but I wasn't in charge for all of those 13 games. I know there have been games where he's not played and we've not won, but some of those games have been pretty tricky games which I'm sure we'd have lost with him as well.
"It's like all statistics. They tell a story but if you really want to know what the story is you've got to read the book, and we don't read the book for statistical stories. We just look at the statistics and we draw our conclusions.
"It was good to win without him and we deserved to win without him because he didn't have the right to get the yellow card that got him sent off in the same way James Tomkins didn't have the right to do that," he added.
"I've told them that of course and they accept that but I'm really pleased that it didn't cost us again today, which it could well have done."
Victory sees Palace pick up back-to-back home victories to move up to 15th and four points clear of the Premier League's bottom three.
When asked about Palace's back-to-back home wins, Hodgson said: "That's good. They'll be hitting me with new statistics at the next press conference so I'll just wait. I'll get organised for all the stats that will come my way but I still like to use statistics sparingly.
"I don't dismiss them but I do think there are often very big stories behind the statistics. If you are not careful you latch onto one and think that means this. It's not normally as simple as that and you have to look into the facts."
Meanwhile, Hodgson did recognise Palace had been fortunate to see out their 1-0 victory over Leicester after watching Jamie Vardy hit a post when through on goal.
The striker, who was handed his England debut by Hodgson in 2015, was sent one-on-one with Palace’s Premier League debutant Vicente Guaita in the 79th minute but the goalkeeper tipped his goalbound shot on to a post before it bounced back into his hands.
Palace have struggled for goals this season having often played well but lacked the finishing touch, and after watching his team win when they could easily have been punished, Hodgson was happy to accept some good fortune.
"I thought our first-half performance was really excellent against such a good team," he said. "Unfortunately we had to make a change in the second-half with Cheikhou Kouyate, who had done so well.
"We had to reorganise our team again - we had already had to reorganise our team a lot due to the suspensions and injuries.
"After that Leicester did very well and they got on top of us but the great thing for me to be able to state, despite them getting on top, is our back four and midfield worked so very hard and we restricted them to few chances.
"And then when a little bit of luck was needed, for once, it went our way. It was a vital victory and the players deserve a lot of credit for pulling it out of the bag."
