Benteke arrival won’t hurt Wickham – Pardew

The arrival of Christian Benteke at Crystal Palace might have been seen as a lack of faith in Connor Wickham but manager Alan Pardew insists the former Ipswich youngster will benefit from the Belgian’s arrival.

A prolific teenager at Portman Road, Wickham struggled to live up to his £8million transfer fee when he moved to Sunderland in 2011.

He made the switch to Selhurst Park last summer, and with the departures of Dwight Gayle, Emmanuel Adebayor and Marouane Chamakh, he began this season as the Eagles’ only fit, recognised striker.

Palace failed to score in both of their opening two fixtures, but finally completed the move for Benteke from Liverpool, with the Belgian expected to lead their line.

However Pardew insists that Wickham will benefit from the support of Benteke, rather than suffer from a lack of game time.

And the 23-year-old certainly made a good impression on Tuesday as he came off the bench at half-time to replace Benteke in the EFL Cup against Blackpool, scoring two minutes into the second half.

Pardew said: “He has had a great responsibility being the only striker that we have had available due to injuries and there has been a lot of pressure on him.

“With Christian’s arrival he has had a bit of a weight lifted from him, he was fresher, sharper and looked better for it.

“He’s a good player and we’ve got no problem with him and the arrival of Christian is going to give a boost.”