McArthur Plays Down Zaha Ban Impact

James McArthur believes Crystal Palace are prepared to cope with the absence of Wilfried Zaha against Fulham.

Zaha will be suspended for Saturday’s fixture after he was sent off for accruing two yellow cards in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Southampton.

It took over two years, until last month, for Palace to win in his absence, but though he scored again at St Mary’s and was perhaps their most influential player, McArthur believes he can be replaced.

Jordan Ayew has started to perform, Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke have returned to fitness, and Bakary Sako recently rejoined the club, meaning the Eagles now have multiple attacking options.

McArthur said: “We always believed that we could get results with anybody out. “It was a thing from the outside that became really big. Obviously with the games he was out, there were hard matches in there against the big teams as well.

He is obviously a big miss. “He took his goal really well. He was a threat all night long. It is just unfortunate that he has been sent off. “He is one of our best players in the team and we will miss him.

But we have got players in the squad that hopefully are ready to go and take their chance. “It is a blow when you lose your top players. But it is a game we look forward to and we go in with confidence that we can get a result. “

(Wickham and Benteke) are obviously going to be big players for us. They are great players and Jordan was excellent up front (against Southampton) as well, he works so hard. Everyone is going to need to try and step up their game to try and push up that table.”