Andros Townsend has offered a robust defence of the misfiring Christian Benteke, insisting his Crystal Palace team-mate should be judged on more than just his goals return.

Benteke, Palace’s £30million record signing, has three goals in his last 35 Premier League games and his starting berth in Roy Hodgson’s side could be at risk if he continues to fire blanks.

Significantly, Hodgson substituted Benteke for Alexander Sorloth as Palace chased an equaliser in the 85th minute of Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Watford — another match in which the Belgian striker struggled to impose himself.

However Townsend, who saw several dangerous crosses wasted by the target man, insisted Benteke’s contribution to the Palace cause should be judged on more than just his scoring return.

“People focus on his goal record but he has offered a lot and played very well again,” Townsend told Standard Sport. “With strikers people tend to forget about the performance if they don’t score but Christian was good on Sunday and I’m sure he’ll be good again on Saturday.

“It was a frustrating day for everyone. Christian played very well again. He had a chance [with a header from Townsend’s cross] but the goalkeeper made a great save.

"He worked hard, he won a lot of headers, running the channel and causing all sorts of problems.”

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Despite the Eagles picking up only three points from their first three Premier League games, there has been cause for optimism in their early season displays and even in defeat at Vicarage Road they created the chances to claim at least a draw.

Following tonight’s Carabao Cup second-round tie at Swansea, Palace have a promising run of League fixtures, with no game against last season’s top six until the end of October.

However, memories of last year’s catastrophic start, in which Palace lost their first seven League games without scoring, mean Townsend is taking nothing for granted.

“Of course we’re optimistic, but we know from last season that you can have similar fixtures and end up losing all seven,” said the former England forward. “There’s no easy games, whether you’re playing Liverpool or Watford.

“We’ll just have to work hard and keep producing performances like we have. Hopefully, the rub of the green will come and we will start winning. The positive is we’ve played well but we haven’t got the points we deserve. If we win on Saturday [at home to Southampton], six points from our first four games would be not bad. Not great, but not bad at all.”

Watford’s third win from three briefly moved Javi Gracia’s side up to second place in the early Premier League standings behind Liverpool and they face fellow high-flyers Tottenham at Vicarage Road on Sunday.

Hornets keeper Ben Foster said: “We would have been snapping hands off if we’d been offered this start, but the teams we have beaten are the ones we need to beat — if you beat one of the big boys it’s almost bonus points.

“If we can get something from Tottenham, then it’s a world-class start for us.”