Palermo - Empoli Preview: Early season basement battle in Sicily

The Renzo Barbera plays host to a nascent season basement battle as Palermo host an Empoli side unbeaten in their last two outings.

Both sides remain mired in the bottom reaches of the Serie A table, though a victory for either would steer them to the precipice of the top half.

Form

Palermo have found victories at a premium this campaign, as they, along with their opponents on Monday evening, languish a mere two points outside of the relegation zone.

The Rosanero, though, responded stoutly to their morale-sapping 4-2 setback from Roma last month by disposing of Delio Rossi's Bologna outfit. The held table-toppers Inter to a 1-1 draw in Sicily and, though they were pulverised by Maurizio Sarri's Napoli in midweek, they will solace in the fact that they have tasted defeat only once at home this season, the aforementioned loss to the hands of Roma notwithstanding.

Franco Vazquez, after a sluggish start to life in the absence of Paulo Dybala, will be hell-bent on maintaining his promising form when Marco Giampaolo's side pay a visit.

Empoli, meanwhile, have shaken off the early season cobwebs and now sit within a whisker of 12th placed Chievo.

Encouraging was their midweek stalemate with Sampdoria at the Marassi, which came off the back of a thoroughly resounding 2-0 victory against Genoa.

Form guide

Palermo: LLWDL

Empoli: LWLWD

Previous meetings

Empoli, surprisingly, hold the upper hand when these two sides clash, boasting six victories to the Rosanero's three.

The Tuscans have yet to taste defeat against the Sicilians since they regained promotion to the top-flight last term, desecrating Iachini's outfit by a three goal margin during their first encounter of the season. Massimo Maccarone, Lorenzo Tonelli and Manuel Pucciarelli provided the goals, though the Azzurri could not replicate the feat when the sides clashed in the Renzo Barbera in March.

Team news

Palermo have been fortunate on the injury front this term and will be expected to field a full-strength line-up after an extra day of recuperation.

The visitors will be shorn of precocious smidfielder Assane Diousse after he was dismissed against Sampdoria on Thursday evening. They will, however, be buoyed by the return of creator-in-chief, Riccardo Saponara, who played the full 90 minutes in midweek.