Roy Hodgson has admitted Chelsea are unlikely to be “frightened” by his Crystal Palace team when the Eagles visit Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Palace have drawn with Manchester City and Brighton in their last two matches, but have not won in seven matches.
They would move to one point behind 10th-place Chelsea if they overturned a 12-game losing streak to Mauricio Pochettino’s side and secured an unlikely victory.
Hodgson said of Chelsea: “When you look at their squad, most teams will look at it and think this is going to be a very tough game.
“I don’t think we’ll go to Chelsea with them being frightened out of their wits with the team we can come with, but I also believe we’ll go there and give them as good a game as we’ve given the last three teams we’ve played — all of which are European teams.”
Michael Olise delivered an excellent performance in Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Brighton, and Hodgson said he is upbeat about the players at his disposal despite Palace’s poor recent form.
“We’ve been blessed with Wilfried [Zaha] over the years, but now we have Olise and also Eberechi Eze — two players who can do that job and get the crowd buzzing," he said.
"We believe that with guys like [Marc Guehi] and Joachim Andersen, Eze, Olise, [Odsonne] Edouard and [Jean-Philippe] Mateta and what they’re doing this year, there is enough threat in our team to get us where we would like to be at the end of the season.”
Asked whether Edouard or Sam Johnstone could return from injury in time for the trip across London to Stamford Bridge, Hodgson was less positive.
“I don’t know," he noted. "Johnstone I’m sure won’t be. Edouard, they [the medical staff] would have to surprise me, but it doesn’t look like that’s the situation at the moment.
“But to be fair at the moment, the players who have come in are doing well enough, so I don’t think there would be any reason to bemoan the fact they’re not there. If they were there, it might mean that Henderson and Mateta didn’t play. At the moment, those two have probably deserved to play.
“Having said that, I’ll be delighted to get that them back and the sooner the better. But I don’t see that [for Chelsea]. Cheick Doucoure absolutely not, and there’s no chance of getting [Rob] Holding back or [Jesurun] Rak-Sakyi back. But another three or four days of training for Eberechi Eze, he’ll be closer to his true form. By the time we play Brentford, even more so.”
