Another weekend of action in the Premier League begins on Friday night this week as two London clubs battle it out when Crystal Palace look to bounce back from a heavy defeat last week when they host the leaders Tottenham Hotspur.
Crystal Palace are in their familiar mid-table position and will be looking to consolidate that with some sort of result here whereas Spurs could move into the unusual position of being five points clear at the top for a day or two should they win.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels with the build-up at Selhurst Park beginning at 7pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Crystal Palace
The season started promisingly for Crystal Palace and they went into the first international break in a very solid position. Things haven’t gone as well since then with them only picking up a solitary win in their last five matches, and that was away to Manchester United who at the time were in the middle of their slump. That leaves Palace with three wins, three draws and three defeats for the season so they will go in search of some consistency over the next few weeks.
The big issue for the Eagles at present is that injuries are beginning to hurt them badly, especially in forward areas and as such they go into this game having scored just one goal in their last four matches and that was scored by a centre-back. Teams are quickly working out that there isn’t much coming back at them and are sending more men forward against Palace which in turn is putting pressure on their defence so they need some attacking talents back as soon as possible.
Tottenham Hotspur
Incredibly after nine matches Tottenham Hotspur are still unbeaten this season as the Ange Postecoglou revolution gathers a bit of speed. They went to the top of the table with a win over a gun shy Fulham on Monday night and assuming they have recovered well for this one they would appear to have an ideal chance to pick up another victory against a similar opponent and then they will be able to sit back and watch those looking to chase them in tricky tests.
The key thing for Tottenham in these nine matches so far is they have only failed to score twice on one occasion. Importantly, they are improving defensively having been a little loose earlier in the season but that has not come at the expense of their goal output so there is a lot to like about Tottenham, although history would tell us to approach their form and with air of caution even though they are looking very good right now.
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Team News
Crystal Palace will be delighted to have Jeffrey Schlupp back from his injury for this match but they are still going to be without the offensive talents of Ebere Eze and Michael Olise while Dean Henderson and James Tomkins will also be out.
Ange Postecoglou will be able to call upon the services of Yves Bissouma after the midfielder served his red card suspension on Monday night. Destiny Odogie and Pape Sarr are doubts for the trip to Selhurst Park.
Betting
We might see goals at something of a premium in this match. I would favour Tottenham Hotspur to win the game but Selhurst Park isn’t an easy place to go at the best of times let alone under the floodlights when Crystal Palace have little to lose. The Eagles have played four home matches this term and only Arsenal have left with all three points and even they were hanging on for dear life so Tottenham might not have this all their own way, especially after a short turnaround.
Palace beat Wolves 3-2 here earlier in the season when Ebere Eze was the star of the show but there has been just one goal in the other three matches and there is no Eze to light this one up. Palace arrive into this match with one goal in their last four games but did have three clean sheets prior to the thumping they took at a rampant Newcastle last weekend. I think Palace will set up deep and see if they can get anything from this game and teams like Sheffield United and Luton have shown Tottenham do sometimes struggle to break down these low blocks. This is a game Spurs might just want to win rather than impress in and barring something freaky I think under 2.5 goals will land here.
Tips
Back Under 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Sky Bet
