Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson’s love of the game will see him determined to return to the dugout as soon as he is well enough, according to Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.
Hodgson fell ill during training on Thursday and was taken to hospital for further tests, with his condition later being described as “stable” by the Premier League club.
The 76-year-old had been set to speak at a scheduled press conference at 1.30pm on Thursday ahead of the upcoming match at Everton on Monday night, but members of the media waiting outside Palace’s training ground in New Beckenham were informed the briefing would not take place.
According to reports, Palace are set to sack Hodgson, with former Eintracht Frankfurt boss Oliver Glasner a strong favourite to take the job.
Arsenal beat Palace 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium on January 20, which was the start of a four-game winning streak as they look to keep up the pace in the title race.
Arteta wished former England boss Hodgson a swift recovery, and understands what the pressures of the job can bring at both ends of the table.
“Hopefully, he’s feeling much better and if that’s the case, knowing Roy, I think he will be in tomorrow because he loves it so much,” the Arsenal manager said at a press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Burnley.
“But yeah, we all got really worried with the situation and hopefully he is fine.”
On the stresses managers work under, Arteta added: “There is that part, but there is the part of joy and how beautiful our jobs are as well.
“A lot of times (pressure) is in relation to where you are, but it is part of the job.”
Friday was understood to be a scheduled rest day for the Palace squad ahead of the trip to Merseyside.
Ray Lewington and fellow assistant Paddy McCarthy are expected to take charge for the Everton game should Hodgson need any extra time off following his spell in hospital.
Palace sit 15th in the table, five points above the relegation zone, heading into the weekend’s Premier League fixtures games.
Hodgson took charge of his 200th match as Eagles manager on Monday when his side were beaten 3-1 at Selhurst Park by Chelsea.
The veteran former England boss is in his second spell in charge of the south London club, having returned for the final 10 games of last season when he signed a short-term deal to take over from the sacked Patrick Vieira.
Hodgson guided the club to an 11th-placed finish before agreeing to continue as manager for the 2023-24 campaign.
Palace have won just six of 24 league fixtures this term, with only three of those victories coming since a 1-0 success at Manchester United in September.
Disgruntled fans have displayed banners in recent weeks calling for Hodgson to be sacked and vented frustration with how the club is being run.
Austrian Glasner guided Frankfurt to Europa League glory in 2022 following a penalty shoot-out victory over Rangers in Seville.
The 49-year-old, who has also managed Wolfsburg, has been out of work since leaving the Bundesliga side last summer.
Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick
Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times.
Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition.
While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them.
"We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said.
"For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.
"A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.
"But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."
Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term.
Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.
"Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.
"Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.
"The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.
"The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."
And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17).
This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.
PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League
PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.
Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed.
Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.
From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.
Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
