“We disapprove totally, we are very disappointed.”
Crystal Palace bounced back from a run of poor results with a comfortable 2-0 victory over bottom placed Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon. First half goals from Jeffrey Schlupp and Ebere Eze put the game beyond doubt early on, as Chris Wilder’s side struggled to get back into the game throughout an uneventful second half.
Ebere Eze channelling his inner Riquelme with this goal. Ice cold 🥶 pic.twitter.com/aIWG9sXMjx
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) January 2, 2021
The main surprise of the day came an hour before kick-off, when Palace captain Luka Milivojević was named in the starting line up with the captain’s armband just two days after he was pictured breaching coronavirus regulations.
The Serbian international was filmed partying with Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović on New Year’s Eve, despite tier 4 restrictions making it clear that household mixing is not currently permitted.
Despite him starting the game at Selhurst Park, Milivojević has not got away with his antics, as Roy Hodgson explained after the game.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live after the game, Hodgson was asked whether the club will remind the player of his responsibilities.
“We absolutely will,” Hodgson said.
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson joins us on Sports Report to discuss…
■ The importance of 3 points against #SUFC
■ Eze's wondergoal
■ Luka Milivojević breaking Covid regulationsListen live via the @BBCSounds app 👇
🎧 https://t.co/5Du5Yilmm1#bbcfootball #CRYSHU #CPFC pic.twitter.com/x1RRgLGH9E— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) January 2, 2021
“Our take on it is we disapprove totally, we are very disappointed that one of our players has broken the guidelines from the government at a time when so many are suffering from having to adhere to these guidelines.
“It’s something which we are very disappointed about. But we’ll take our responsibility, we’ll apologise to everybody.
“We will certainly make sure that Luka not only apologises but understands that what he’s done is totally wrong and we’ll deal with the matter internally.”
