Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has insisted that he is "not fazed" by the prospect of facing free-scoring Manchester City this weekend.
The Eagles are currently bottom of the league after losing their first five games of the season, but now take on the daunting task of coming up against a City side that have won their last three games by an aggregate 15-0 scoreline.
"You make certain you work on your game, the defensive side well," Hodgson, who replaced Frank de Boer in the Palace hotseat last week, told reporters today. "If it turns out they have a bit too much firepower, even doing the things we want to do, we will probably have to accept that.
"At the moment we are going there in a reasonably confident mood. The players know their jobs and will be working hard to perform those roles. I'm being bombarded with statistics about how good they are but I'm not fazed.
"We know it will be a tough ask but we take each game as it comes, even though that is a cliche. Cause the opposition as many problems as you can, that's all we can do.
"It's pointless to have a points target, our target is to play well. We have to hope that our performance is better than we expect and theirs is worse."
The game at City kickstarts a tough run of fixtures for Hodgson's side, with encounters against Manchester United and Chelsea to come after their trip to the Etihad.
Neil Wilkes
