Hodgson full of praise for Son

Roy Hodgson praised the performance of Heung-min Son, the hero for Spurs in Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.

The South Korean scored twice and could have had a hat-trick as the Lillywhites brushed aside the south Londoners.

And Palace boss Hodgson was full of praise for Son. He said: “Son’s performance, particularly in the first half, was outstanding and in the last minutes of the game he was the one sprinting back to try to stop us scoring a goal.

“If I had a player who did what Son did today I would be delighted. Luckily for Tottenham they don’t just have the one player, they have many.”

Hodgson said the only positive he could take from the defeat was Mamadou Sakho getting through the whole game. In answer to a question as to whether he was pleased that Palace didn’t concede in the second period, the former England manager said: “No but they were 4-0 up. I don’t want to sit here and add any solace to the fact we didn’t conceded any more.

“In this league when you score four goals without reply you can invariably say the game is won. It’s difficult for Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea to come back (from 4-0).

"I am glad it didn’t become more than 4-0. The only positive I can take is that Mamadou Sakho got through 90 minutes in a very tough game, so if you’re looking for some positives from me from a Crystal Palace point of view I cannot give you any more than that.

“We were unhappy with our first half performance and we are all prepared to accept responsibility for that. We didn’t show the intensity we should have but I don’t want to take away from how good Tottenham were.

“It wasn’t purely a case of us not being anywhere near the standards we set for ourselves, but it certainly was a case of Tottenham playing very well and asking lots from our defence.”