‘Quality’, ‘Only positive’: Some Crystal Palace fans react to 30-year-old’s display vs Tottenham – originally posted on Sportslens.com
A section of Crystal Palace fans on Twitter reacted to Christian Benteke’s display during last night’s 4-1 Premier League defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.
The Eagles trailed midway through the first half as Gareth Bale scored for Spurs, but they made it 1-1 against the run of play before the break.
Luka Milivojevic was offered space and time on the left wing and he delivered a delicious cross between two defenders for Christian Benteke to score with a powerful header.
The south London outfit could not hold onto the advantage as they conceded three more goals following the interval, but there were some positives from the derby.
Benteke netted his second goal from four appearances for the Eagles and that poses the question whether the club may extend his contract beyond June.
He is reportedly on £120,000-a-week and may need to take a pay-cut on his salary to sign a new long-term deal with Roy Hodgson’s side.
Elsewhere, Wilfried Zaha was lively on his return to the playing field after a month out with a hamstring injury and played the entire second half.
Here are some reactions from the club’s faithful after Benteke’s fifth goal of the campaign.
Can we talk about Benteke’s finishing this season? 4/5 of his goals have genuinely been quality.
— Nick
(@Nick_CPFC) March 7, 2021
On the plus side, another goal for Benteke, a decent 45 minutes for Zaha and more minutes for Schlupp. Onto the big one against West Brom next week #TOTCRY #CPFC
— Matt Watts (@TheNearPost1_1) March 7, 2021
Well the only positive from this game is Benteke has five premier league goals this season.
— Charles Bannister (@CharlesBannis20) March 7, 2021
All strikers under this manger struggle due to the style of play but Benteke is quality & gives the team so much. If we played a game built more around his strengths he would score lots of goals
— Paul Maz (@cpfcmaz) March 7, 2021
Bro everytime he is found he scores. He’s scored two goals and we’ve had about 5 attacks total in four games. It’s Roy’s setup. In any other setup Benteke gets 18 a season
— RJ
As things stand, Benteke will become a free-agent when the season concludes and a number of Premier League sides may be interested in signing him.
The 30-year-old is no longer at the prime of his career, but has shown in recent weeks that he can score quality goals when offered the service in the box.
It is unclear whether he will accept a pay-cut to sign a renewal, given he could command a significant signing-on fee by joining a new club this summer.
In other news, Palace are interested in signing this 27-year-old midfielder on a free transfer this summer.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com