Crystal Palace will be boosted by the availability of new signing Jean-Philippe Mateta when Wolves visit Selhurst Park on Saturday.
The loan addition had to sit out Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at home to West Ham while he waited for a visa to be granted following an 18-month switch from Mainz earlier this month.
Post-match boss Roy Hodgson confirmed the prolific forward had been given the green light to get his Palace career under way and he is set to be on the bench this weekend.
It will be a welcome lift for the Eagles, who have lost three of their last four matches in all competitions and struggled to find the net during that period.
“He now has his visa, which was a slight problem we had to sort out but he now has that,” Hodgson said.
“So he will be training with us on Thursday and Friday and he will certainly be in the squad for Saturday so I will have to make a decision on whether he starts the game or not.”
Christian Benteke again partnered Wilfried Zaha in attack for the visit of West Ham and despite neat link-up play between the duo for the opener, chances were limited following Zaha’s third-minute strike at Selhurst Park.
Substitute Michy Batshuayi pulled a goal back for Palace deep into stoppage time to get off the mark in his second spell in south London following a loan move from Chelsea last September, but it was too little, too late.
The Eagles, who were without assistant manager Ray Lewington on Tuesday after he tested positive for coronavirus, remain in 13th and a point ahead of Saturday’s opponents Wolves.
Hodgson added: “The daily work now is to make sure first of all we dust ourselves down and try to put this defeat behind us as quick as we can.
“The only way to do that is to train hard and make certain when we play against Wolves on Saturday our performance is an awful lot better.
“Wolverhampton are a very good team too and will be quite capable of doing to us what West Ham did unless we play better and make it more difficult for them to score and create more chances ourselves.”
Palace continue to look over their shoulder, but West Ham have essentially secured another campaign of Premier League football.
A 10th win in the top flight this term moved them onto 35 points, which was enough to see Aston Villa stay up last season.
Manager David Moyes did not want to celebrate the accomplishment with loftier targets in mind.
“I want to help grow a club which will do it steadily because it is very rare you can get to this position from where we have been and stay there,” the Scot insisted.
“We have to do it in stages. We are doing a brilliant job at the moment with the players we have got.
“And the way I look at it is this got us our 10th win in the Premier League this season and I always saw that was enough to keep you as a Premier League club because you’d normally pick up seven or eight draws, which meant you were safe from relegation.
“I could look at it that way and say it looks like we’ll be a Premier League club next year, but I am not. I am looking at it much more positively and looking at it that we can do better.
“But again I don’t want to say something which I can’t deliver. We are doing a good job, the players are doing a really good job and long may that continue.”
‘Maybe I’ll be signed by Wrexham, who knows? English football would suit me – if an offer came, I wouldn’t think twice, I’d go immediately’ Euro 2024 cult hero reveals his UK dream
‘Managing Leeds? It was an option that appeared, but it wasn’t the right timing. I decided it wasn’t a good idea to leave the club I was at mid-season’: Premier League boss admits to turning down opportunity to replace Jesse Marsch in 2023
