Slaven Bilic has given his pre-match press conference ahead of Crystal Palace away on Saturday.
Slaven told reporters “Michail Antonio had a bruise on his rib and only trained yesterday. We are going to see today. We are training at 2pm. Nobody said yesterday they felt anything. Antonio will train today and then based on that we will see what shape he is in.”
On Wednesday’s win, he said: “It means a lot. Defeats get you down. Every win gives you a bit of a boost and a better atmosphere. Especially if it happens like it did the other night. Against Spurs, at Wembley, gave us a lot of confidence. I said the result at half-time was very bad for us. We didn’t demonstrate what we can do. If we raised the level of quality in the last third we had a chance and the next goal was the key one. We improved our game when they had the ball. We raised our level.”
On facing Palace on Saturday: “The next game is very important. We want to continue and use that win and that self-confidence when we approach the game tomorrow. It’s a new game. It’s a big game, a massive game, a game of massive importance. We have to show our quality and our character.”
“We turned a corner after those three away games at the beginning of the season. We were on the way up until Brighton. We wanted to put a strong team out against Spurs but also rest some players. Those players deserved their chance. The situation is that most of the squad is fit and we have to consider a few things before we decide who will start tomorrow.
“The guys who beat Spurs away won the game, but on the other hand you have the guys who played good before Brighton. Sometimes you can’t expect the same energy level in such a short period of time as well. Whoever starts, every individual is involved in the team.”
On Palace’s current form: “I’m not surprised. It’s not nice to see a manager go so early in the season. It will keep happening though, and not only in England. The start is very important. The quality of the Premier League is so great that once you’re in that bad start it’s very difficult to come out of that. They changed their manager and I’ve watched their last three games and they were good. They beat Chelsea, played well against Newcastle, and have improved.”
On rumours about the sack “I talk to the chairmen often. I am totally focused on the things I can influence which is the training, talking to the players, and the games. With that in your head you can improve and affect the things you can change.I will never stop believing in my team because they are my players.”
I had a feeling we could beat Spurs and was feeling pretty optimistic before the game . But when we went two nil down and didn’t look like improving And thought we were going to get absolutely thrashed . It was difficult to watch to be honest . Then Spurs switched off . Wheather they thought they had the game easily won or became complacent nobody can be sure . The Spurs defense disappeared for our first two goals and thank the football gods they did . Our third goal was different though . The kind of goal all teams like to score and no team likes to concede . It was a crazy 15mins that happens in football but , I never thought for a moment it would happen …. it surprised everyone . We are in the next round away to Arsenal and let’s hope we take it very seriously .
Tomorrow away to Palace is a tough one make no mistake . Three points are vital for both teams so expect some end to end stuff .
Blimey Kevin, I’d pop along to the Doctors mate and get that feeling seen to fella! if you really did see that coming, can you please post tomorrows lottery numbers? I don’t mind sharing.
Bobby Madley will I am very sure will upset us sometime in the game !! Poor ref who thinks he can bend the rules to suit himself , blinkered and bias and not just to us , !! 😉
In which case Laz, Zabba’s got to come out of the starting eleven, because there is a stone-wall penalty coming with this clown in charge!
What’s the odds for the first goal being a pen !! Dean gave a freekick that wasn’t on the edge of the box trying to give spurs a way back on wednesday, this bloke is out of the same mould!!!!
Oh blimey did you blokes have to mention refs. I haven’t had a ref rant for about 10 days.
What drives me mad is when they can’t just do their job but have to start being ‘part of the action’ & think they can’t leave it to the players to entertain. It is what I heard that clown Poll describe as ‘game management’. For example in a Manchester derby you let a few bad tackles go in the first 15m so you don’t spoil the game with a red card. That’s fine but not if you give a straight red early on in Hammers v Stoke because they are not top clubs. Or you keep making decisions to help a side that is 2-0 down to ‘make a game of it’. Or you decide it is only worth playing 2 min of extra time if the score is 3-0, but stretch it out to the max (& beyond) if one side is pressing for an equaliser ( especially if it is Man Utd!!)
Rant over . I love Mike Dean really😤😤😤
That’s why IMO 64 we need video playback to stop the show pony’s in their tracks !!! 😉
Reporting that Rice nor Bryan will be in squad & def not start. Apparently Antonio is fit to play.
Not sure if true or not but seems about right way stick with whats working