Cenk Tosun only arrived at Crystal Palace on Friday but Roy Hodgson says the striker is ready to play against Arsenal after signing on loan from Everton for the rest of the season.
So far this season, Cenk Tosun has scored just one goal (with three assists). Then again, he only played 328 minutes in total for Everton with just two league starts, so it’s no surprise to see him on the move, albeit temporarily. For now, at least.
Crystal Palace announced the loan signing of Tosun on Friday and the player could well line-up to face Arsenal on Saturday for their lunchtime kick-off.
“If I choose him tomorrow I don’t have any doubts he’ll be ready for the task,” Hodgson said about Tosun at his pre-match press conference.
“He is in contention to be in the squad. I’m very grateful to Everton and Crystal Palace for getting that done so quickly to make him available because we still have eight players unavailable and that’s a lot of players not to be able to even consider.
“It’s great to have someone like him which I think will boost everybody, not just the players and people like myself and the coaching staff and the Chairman who’s put out a statement, it will also boost the fans.
“He was very well received by the players in a very light session today. He’s full of enthusiasm because he’s desperate to get on the field to show what he can do, especially with the Euros coming up. As Turkey’s top scorer, he feels that he needs to get some game time to make sure he’s hitting the ground running for the Euros this summer.”
Palace previously tried to sign Tosun before he moved to Everton last January for £27m and the player, at the time, commented how happy he was the move fell through.
“About my transfer to Crystal Palace I can say that I’m very happy the move failed,” he said in 2017. “Because I get to stay at the club [Besiktas] and I am doing very well at the moment in both the league and Champions League.”
After scoring 64 goals, with 13 assists, for Besiktas in 142 appearances, Tosun scored 10 goals, with six assists, in 51 Everton games.
But despite being above Arsenal in the table by a point, only one team in the league has scored fewer goals than Palace this season, hence their need for a goalscorer.
Palace have 19 goals and Watford 17, the only two sides to have scored fewer than 20 goals this season in the Premier League.