Four successive defeats saw Dutchman Frank de Boer become the division’s first managerial casualty, with replacement Hodgson losing his first three games at the helm before last Saturday’s shock win over Chelsea at Selhurst Park.
Yohan Cabaye’s strike against the Blues was Palace’s first in the Premier League all season, with fit-again Wilfried Zaha netting the winner after Tiemoue Bakayoko’s leveller in between.
In Benítez’s opinion, though, the Eagles had been on the brink of breaking their duck for some time, the Spaniard believing that their position in the standings is not wholly reflective of their performance levels.
“They were playing better than what you were seeing in the table,” he said. “I was surprised they were not picking up points or scoring goals. I was watching a couple of their games, and now – preparing for this game – I have been watching a lot of clips, and I think they were playing well.
“And then, they won, and they scored, and nobody will say, ‘Maybe they can score against you!’ They did really well and they will have more confidence, but every game in the Premier League is so difficult, and this will be another one. We know the team, and we know the manager has experience, so we have to be sure we can control them and exploit what it means to play at St. James’ Park, in terms of putting pressure on them.”
A 2-2 draw at Southampton on Sunday kept the Magpies in the top half of the Premier League table, Manolo Gabbiadini’s 75th-minute penalty salvaging a point for the home side.
United are unbeaten at St. James’ Park since the opening day of the campaign but Benítez – encouraged as he is by his players’ progress – re-iterated that there is a long way still to go.
“I am quite happy. We have a good team, with young players, who are improving and they can improve because they work very hard in every training session,” he said. “So, (I am) quite positive in terms of what we can achieve but at the same time, I am telling them – I am telling a lot of people around me, but especially them – that we know we can be close to the top of the table, but we are still close to the bottom of the table. We have to be sure that we don’t look too much at what is going on in terms of games – it is just the next one that is the most important. We will try to get three points and that’s it.”
