Palace had been contemplating promoting the Frenchman, who RB Leipzig wished within the ultimate fortnight of the switch window. But after scoring a hat-trick within the 4-0 EFL Cup win over Plymouth on Tuesday, Mateta got here off the bench to help two targets in Palace's 3-2 win over Wolves on Sunday.
"That's why we kept him", Hodgson stated. "He, because he's not been getting as regular a game as he'd have liked, would have been very keen to go and try his luck elsewhere, but I and the club wanted to keep him.
"If you are the workforce that simply performs one sport each week and you have an excellent XI who do not get injured, it is very onerous on those that aren't in that first XI. But if I used to be to let each participant go who wasn't in that first XI, that is all we would have. That must be stated.
"You try and give them minutes and find space for them. At Plymouth there was a space and here there was a space, and, on both occasions, JP held his hand up and said: 'You've given me a chance, now look what I can do.' Great. I've always believed that was the case. He's got to keep that going, keep fighting alongside Odsonne Edouard for a place in the team, and he's got to deliver."
Edouard scored a brace at Selhurst Park, and Hodgson was equally impressed Mateta's compatriot.
"He was very good throughout. His hold-up play was good, his movement was very good. Even in moments when I didn't think we were playing anywhere near as well as we could, he was one of the brighter lights.
"It was a superb end result. After a primary half which was nowhere close to what we're able to doing, I wasn't happy with the efficiency. We did do higher within the second half, and we did rating three excellent targets.
"Today's victory was only soured by that last-minute goal. We shouldn't be conceding goals like that in the 96th minute of the game. It didn't cost us points, but it did cost me a little bit of faith."
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