Speaking to Sky Sports News after the humbling defeat to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, Crystal Palace manager, Roy Hodgson says that his side have, "Got to learn a lesson", following the education that the Eagles received from Liverpool on Wednesday evening.
Liverpool, in the sweltering summer evening heat at Anfield, were too hot to handle for Palace, with a sublime free-kick from Trent Alexander Arnold and a wonder strike from Fabinho the pick of the bunch as the Eagles fell to their second 4-0 loss of the season.
Palace remain in ninth position in the League table but now are three points off a Europa League spot, with a considerably worse goal difference than their positional rivals following the heavy defeat.
Injury problems
Palace found themselves short on numbers against Liverpool, with Roy Hodgson only naming eight players on the bench instead of the permitted nine.
First choice goalkeeper, Vincente Guiata, and striker, Christian Benteke, were both unavailable for selection, following the pair picking up muscle strains in the win against Bournemouth last Saturday, which they failed to recover from in time for this fixture.
The evening went from bad to worse for Hodgson's side, when, after 15 minutes into the first half, talisman Wilfired Zaha had to be replaced by Max Meyer following a calf issue which was troubling him in the warm up. "He (Zaha) has got a calf injury, he felt a strain in his muscle. There was some discussion between him, myself and the doctors on whether he should even attempt to play, but he was adamant he wanted to try."
Hodgson had this to say on the injury issues, "I don't think we need to make any sort of excuses really. Liverpool tonight were in such incredible form; irrespective of what team we had been able to put out, we would have found it very, very difficult.
"We will have to be so careful at this time of year. We just don't have the squad, we just don't have the numbers, and we don't have the bodies. When our front players go down we do not have the replacements for them."
Liverpool dominated Palace
After the game, Roy Hodgson spoke very highly of his former side. "They were so aggressive, they were so good in their pressurising and winning the ball back, that really we got no opportunities to put our foot on the ball, to pass it around and ask them (Liverpool) some questions. It was very difficult for us."
Palace came into this fixture with an impressive record of four clean sheets and four consecutive wins in a row. However, Liverpool's class was evident from the first minute of the fixture.
Palace failed to offer any real threat going forward with top scorer, Jordan Ayew, finding himself isolated as the lone striker, and Palace's creative opportunities were snuffed out by Liverpool's marauding midfielders.
Palace still have a lot to play for
Crystal Palace still have a lot to play for heading into the final phase of the season and can still achieve their best points tally in Premier League history, only needing eight points from the remaining seven fixtures to break that target.
A Europa League spot is still the dream for everyone associated with the Eagles, but after the Liverpool defeat bringing Palace fans back down to earth, Hodgson had this to say on the remainder of the season. "It's been a great season so far and it can continue to be one."
"There are always lessons to be learnt. We won't write the game off, it would be a massive mistake to write it off. We have got to suffer the disappointment of losing by four goals. It has only happened once before this season and it is something we do not want to happen again."