Almost unnoticed with the Pay Per View nonsense that is taking place at the minute, another Premier League weekend kicks off on Friday night as Wolverhampton Wanderers host Crystal Palace at Molineux.
These two sides go into the weekend in the top half of the table and whoever wins this match will move up to third ahead of the remainder of the fixtures to come over the next few days. This table is so congested though that the losers could drop the 15th.
Where to Watch
The match can be watched live on BT Sport Box Office for the price of £14.95. The short build up begins at 7.50pm and the match itself kicks off at 8pm.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves go into this match unbeaten in their last three outings and with three wins and a draw to their name from their opening six games of the season. This recent good run they have been on put to bed a disappointing defeat to West Ham which opened up a few concerns. I’m not convinced they have completely answered them but as I regularly say you can’t really have a pop at a team for winning matches, regardless of how they do it.
Wolves have finished seventh in the last two seasons and you would think with no European football this term their ambition will be to finish higher than that, especially with one or two of the so called big six not looking anything like as strong as usual, and in order to achieve that aim these are the matches that they need to turn into wins, but are often the ones that they struggle to come out on top in, as evidenced by their draw against Newcastle on Sunday.
Crystal Palace
It is early in the season but these are lofty heights for Crystal Palace at the present time. Like their opponents here they also have three wins from their six matches but two of those came in the opening week of the campaign. They got back to winning ways last time out when they took care of Fulham although that win just looks par for the course right now. A win here would really make people take notice though.
Generally under Roy Hodgson their better results have come on the road and indeed two of their three wins this season have been away from Selhurst Park, something which will give them plenty of confidence to take into this game with them. Palace generally set up well to play on the counter attack so they will fancy their chances of getting something out of this match which would see them remain in the top half of the table here.
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Team News
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo has a few options should he want to change his side. Joao Moutinho and Adama Traore started the draw with Newcastle United on the bench and both could come in from the start here.
Crystal Palace have Jordan Ayew and Jack Butland back after they have recovered from Coronavirus but the match is likely to come too soon for James Tomkins, James McCarthy and Gary Cahill. Tyrick Mitchell and Joel Ward are both being assessed.
Betting
This isn’t an easy match to bet on. My gut feeling is that Wolves aren’t as strong at the minute as they have been in previous seasons. They don’t look convincing up front if teams shackle Raul Jimenez and their goalkeeper is working a lot more this term too. Whether that is just new blood needing to settle down or not I’m not completely sure but they don’t really convince me at the minute I must admit.
I would have backed Crystal Palace here but as always they are carrying one or two too many injuries for my liking and that is enough of a concern for me to avoid taking them. The obvious expectation is to expect a tight and low scoring match between these two and I certainly don’t see that not being the case but it is so obvious that the bookmakers are all over it. If this was in a block of Saturday games I wouldn’t give it a second thought betting wise and just because it is a standalone Friday night game, there is nothing that tempts me in so I’ll leave it alone.
Tips
No Bet
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