Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson says Palace could be without three key players for the rest of the Premier League season - but that is not stopping him aiming high with his squad.
Palace got back underway in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over strugglers Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium, and Hodgson says he is hoping that Palace can finish in the top half.
Following the win against Bournemouth, Palace moved up to ninth in the Premier League table, leapfrogging Arsenal after their defeat at Brighton.
And the 72-year-old manager says he wants the squad to push on and realise their ambitions.
"Well I still maintain we finished 10th that first year when I was at the club when we had the same number of points with Newcastle and they pipped us on goal difference," Hodgson told reporters.
"That was a level 10th for me, which I was quite satisfied with. We would like to push on and go a bit further of course, but I think one of the problems we are going to find is the squad is quite small. It is limited."
Martin Kelly, Jeffrey Schlupp and James Tomkins all missed the trip to Bournemouth, and Hodgson admitted they may be out for the rest of the season.
"We have lost three very important senior first-team players and it’s unlikely we’ll get more than one of them back in the coming weeks," he added.
"It is going to be a major challenge for the small group of players we’ve got to get through so many games in such a short period of time."
