Martin Samuels puts it in perspective:

Hodgson was spoilt at Palace — not the supporters

Now Roy Hodgson has entered the fray by telling disgruntled Crystal Palace fans they have been spoilt. No, they haven’t; but he was, last season, when he took the job. Hodgson’s predecessor, Patrick Vieira, had just completed the fixture sequence from hell when he was sacked, a run of 11 league matches with only a single game against a team who weren’t in the top eight, or part of the failed European Super League elite. When Hodgson took over he had every one of the bottom eight clubs to play, in a sequence that had yielded 16 points earlier in the season. Hodgson started with three straight wins — against every club in the bottom three, all of whom would be relegated. And he took 16 points, the same as Vieira, from that run of games, while appearing a freewheeling football genius.

So, yes, he was spoilt, and this campaign was always going to be different. Hodgson has lost the tough fixtures — all bar the game away to Manchester United — and a few of the tamer ones too. In other words, back to reality. Vieira wasn’t playing Eberechi Eze, a mistake Hodgson rightly corrected, and Wilfried Zaha was always going to be a loss. Yet given the challenges Vieira faced, the outcomes have not been greatly different. Hodgson has said he regretted his comments, which at least shows a degree of awareness about his big break last season.

Eze started both the Forest and Fulham matches being substituted after 60 and 78 minutes as he was struggling. Not surprising considering he was still recovering after a horrendous injury after a Roy training session. Nonetheless Vieira played him in every match, some as a sub. It was in fact Roy who dropped him completely from the squad because “he has to learn how to defend”. When, I suspect, Parish learned that his £20m acquisition was was twiddling his thumbs with the Juniors he was hurriedly reinstated. Eze, knowing he had the blessing of the bosses, decided to ignore Roy and play in mid-field. The rest is history.

An observation...

Based on the current Premier League form guide (last 6 games) Liverpool, Everton and Bournemouth are the top three.

My view is that we were on top most of the game against Everton and every time they went forward the seemed to score. It didn't feel like a poor performance.

Luton, certainly not at our stella best, but I think were were rattled after losing two key players within 90 seconds. We had chances and didn't take them. They did.

Bournemouth - felt like a dire performance at the time as we all expected we'd beat them, but Bournemouth are currently on a roll. Is it a case of Bournemouth actually played very well and deserve credit? Again, we probably had more chances than they did and the result might have been different.

Liverpool - given we could barely field 11 players, I thought it was our best performance of the season and the effort from the players showed they are clearly behind Roy.

Point is, we've come up against teams in good form whilst we're carrying significant injuries. We are losing games to fine margins. Roy ain't the problem, that was proved in the Liverpool match.

I've no doubt we'll start picking up wins when key players return. I'd be very worried about relegation if Roy got the boot - no one can drill a team like he can. We all want expansive exciting football but that won't happen unless we've got both Eze and Olise on the pitch. No manager can conjure up flair players from nowhere.

Agree with everything you say,although we know Roy signed a one year deal and will be gone at the end of the season and planning for his replacement is a very high priority,or should be.

My concern presently is that Roy, like Pardew previously, is a pragmatic manager and may get "more slack" from the management like him in terms of change due to his stature at the club. That said Pardew had the FA cup run and more points in the bank than Roy, so his possible departure may come quicker.