If Hodgson has the best record against the top 6 away from home in the PL up to when that article was written, how can a poor record be the standard? It defies common sense. The points seem low because most sides come away with few points from those fixtures given they’re the hardest in the league by definition.
The thing is, it's really difficult to compare managers in this way because most clubs generally change their managers on an annual or biannual basis. Hodgson is one of the longest serving current managers in the Premier League. Out off the current managers only Dyche, Klopp and Guardiola have spent more time in the Premier League at their current respective clubs. (I'm not counting Nuno and Wilder here because they've spent some time in the lower divisions).
That article you posted doesn't say that "Hodgson has the best record against the top 6 away from home in the PL". The article references the 2016-17 season, where Roy Hodgson wasn't even managing Crystal Palace, Pardew and Allardyce managed them that season. We have to look at the facts as they are NOW, not as they were a couple of years ago. If you wanna look at managers records against the big sides, you have to count the most recent season too. You can't say "Oh last season doesn't suit my point so let's just write that off as irrelevant".
The fact is since Hodgson took over Crystal Palace he has gathered 12 points in three years. Dyche at Burnley has 11 points in the same period (12 points in four years if we include the season your article references). Nuno has 14 points in two years since Wolves got promoted from the Championship. Again, Palace's record is nothing spectacular. And like I said, managers get sacked so often that it's difficult to get a proper comparison here.
And don't get me wrong, I don't think Hodgson is a bad coach, he's done all right at Palace and they have a couple of solid midtable players in their squad. But I would still expect us to beat them and the likes of Burnley at Old Trafford despite them gathering 11-12 points away from home against the top 6 in the past three seasons because we have better players and
should have a better coach too. Your standards are clearly lower.