May 10 2017

James McArthur

Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur says it's vital the team recovers quickly from the humiliating defeat at Manchester City.

Palace were tonked 5-0 by the high-fliers at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday with McArthur admitting it's the worst the team has played.

The midfielder – who has come in for the sidelined Yohan Cabaye – also made an honest assessment by admitting that he needs to improve his own game.

The Eagles are not safe from relegation and host Hull City this weekend in a crucial six-pointer that manager Sam Allardyce has described as a 'cup final'.

McArthur, 29, said: "Being honest, I don't think my performance level is nowhere near it should be, and I take that on board. I'll need to do more, I'm trying my hardest to get fitter and stronger. But my personal performance is nowhere near what I want.

"I'm not going to make excuses, I'm there to play, I need to do more and try and help the team. We need to pick ourselves up somehow, it was a bad performance all round.

"They played very, very well. We didn't help ourselves a lot and played very poorly on the day. It needed to be the other way around and hope they had an off day.

"It worked out vice-versa, it was gutting and hard to take of how we've conceded a lot of the goals, how we've played, how we've not performed.

"We actually reacted well to the first goal, keeping them out until half-time. We wanted to keep that going, but as soon as the second goal went in it was downhill from there.

"I think it was one of the worst we have played but you have to give City credit as well. They were superb on the day, they play so much great football, so much attacking football, and they made it hard for us."

"Everyone was devastated with the way we played and capitulated a bit letting in five goals, but now we have to go again.

"We're not going to get anything from feeling down, there is no time to be disappointed. But now we need to get the points we need to stay up, that's all that matters."