James McArthur says Crystal Palace can cope without Wilfried Zaha
Thursday 31 January 2019 12:43, UK
James McArthur believes Crystal Palace are prepared to cope with the absence of Wilfried Zaha against Fulham.
Zaha will be suspended for Saturday's match after he was sent off for two yellow cards in the 1-1 draw at Southampton.
Palace won without him for the first time in two years last month when they beat Leicester 1-0 at Selhurst Park.
Zaha scored his first goal since mid-September in the draw at St Mary's but McArthur believes he can be replaced.
"We always believed that we could get results with anybody out," McArthur said. "It was a thing from the outside that became really big."
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"Obviously with the games he was out, there were hard matches in there against the big teams as well. He is obviously a big miss.
"He took his goal really well. He was a threat all night long. It is just unfortunate that he has been sent off.
"He is one of our best players in the team and we will miss him. But we have got players in the squad that hopefully are ready to go and take their chance.
"It is a blow when you lose your top players. But it is a game we look forward to and we go in with confidence that we can get a result."
Palace have alternative options up front with the return to fitness of Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke. Bakary Sako has also recently rejoined the club, meaning the Eagles now have multiple attacking options.
" [Wickham and Benteke] are obviously going to be big players for us," McArthur added. "They are great players and Jordan was excellent up front [against Southampton] as well, he works so hard. Everyone is going to need to try and step up their game to try and push up that table."
