Roy Hodgson: 'Arsenal deserved to win'

Roy Hodgson has conceded that Arsenal "probably deserved" to win at Crystal Palace in their Premier League meeting on Thursday night, which finished 3-2 to the visitors.

The Gunners opened the scoring on 25 minutes through Shkodran Mustafi but Andros Townsend equalised early in the second half when he turned in Wilfried Zaha's cross from close range.

However, Alexis Sanchez added two quickfire goals in the 63rd and 66th minutes to extend the visitors' lead, and kept their cool to see out the game following James Tomkins's late header.

Although the Eagles gave their opponents a fright at Selhurst Park, they mustered only 35% possession, while Arsenal weighed in with 16 shots, nine of which were on target.

"We weren't getting close enough to the ball first half," Hodgson told Sky Sports News. "We weren't as aggressive as we would like our players to be.

"They were aggressive in closing down and we wanted to match that effort. We did that second half and held a reasonable line.

"From the chances in the game we were every bit as dangerous as them. We weren't clinical enough. We have to accept we lost the game against a very good team that probably deserved it over 90 minutes."

The result brings an end to Palace's club-record eight-match unbeaten streak in the league to leave them just one point clear of the dropzone ahead of the New Year's Eve meeting with Manchester City.