Crystal Palace travel to the London Stadium to face off against West Ham United in a Premier League London derby. The game will not have fans attending after the announcement that the capital has now moved from Tier two to Tier three.
The Hammers will be keen to keep up their good run of form after four wins in their last five games. The only defeat came against Manchester United in a 3-1 home loss, however, they bounced back against Leeds United, with Tomas Soucek and Angelo Ogbonna grabbing the goals in a 2-1 away win.
The Eagles have been playing exciting football lately and it has shown after suffering two disappointing defeats to Burnley and Newcastle United. In their last two games, the Eagles dismantled West Brom 5-1 and they took the game to Tottenham Hotspur in an inspiring home performance to earn a 1-1 draw.
Eberechi Eze and Wilfried Zaha will be a dangerous partnership that West Ham have to deal with, but Palace will also need to be aware of Soucek and Jarrod Bowen, who are in fine form for the Hammers.
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Team News
Despite the quick turnaround in matches, Hammers boss, David Moyes, has no fresh injury concerns to contend with for the game against Palace.
Michail Antonio and Arthur Masuaku will be sidelined for this fixture but West Ham still have plenty of options to choose from. The likes of Manuel Lanzini, Ryan Fredericks, Mark Noble and Robert Snodgrass will be hopeful of returning to the line-up.
As for Palace, Roy Hodgson is likely to keep his line-up unchanged from the draw against Spurs and the thumping win over the Baggies.
The Eagles could make a change or two to keep the team fresh, with Jairo Riedewald and Andros Townsend introduced to the bench on the weekend, meaning they could be in contention to start at The London Stadium.
Jordan Ayew has a great run of form against the Hammers, scoring four league goals, including two last-minute winners last season, and that could influence Hodgson trust him with a starting role.
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Predicted Lineups
West Ham possible XI: Lukasz Fabianski, Vladimir Coufal, Fabian Balbuena, Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Declan Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Lanzini, Pablo Fornals and Sebastian Haller.
Crystal Palace XI: Vicente Guaita, Nathaniel Clyne, Cheikhou Kouyate, Gary Cahill, Patrick Van Aanholt, Jeffrey Schlupp, Luka Milivojevic, James McArthur, Eze, Zaha and Christian Benteke.
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Form Guide
West Ham have drawn twice, lost twice and won once in their last five games against the Eagles. Palace have done better, winning twice, drawing twice and losing once against the Hammers.
The hammer sit in 6th, only losing once in their last five Premier League games, whilst Palace have won twice, lost twice and drawn once in their last five.
Palace will be looking to prove that those defeats against bottom-half opposition was only a blip and that they are capable of getting more wins to their name.
Palace do not have a scintillating return form The London Stadium, but their performance last season in a 2-1 win should keep the Hammers wary of their threat up top.
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Ones to Watch
West Ham - Jarrod Bowen
The former Hull City man has been on fire the moment he arrived in East London. He was a big player last season that helped the Hammers stay up comfortably.
He is likely to come central with the ball to help support Haller upfront. Palace's central midfield will need to keep an eye on him and Fornals, who is also capable with carrying the ball from midfield and starting an attack.
Bowen is also dangerous on the wing with his tricky feet and exceptional delivery, but Milivojevic and McArthur will need to watch him if he does play in the middle.
Crystal Palace - Christian Benteke
Benteke has been a man reborn in the last two games for the Eagles, scoring twice against West Brom and playing well against Spurs at Selhurst Park.
The Belgian seems to be getting his confidence back, and Palace are finally utilising his aerial ability with crosses from the byline, instead of just lumping the ball up to him.
His hold-up play will be key to Palace in this game and he will need to be strong against Balbuena and Ogbonna. It will surely be a physical battle worth watching on Wednesday night.
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Previous Meeting
Crystal Palace 2-1 West Ham United (26/12/2019)
On Boxing Day, the two sides met just two months after Ayew's late winner at the London Stadium.
The game started with Palace on the front foot, with Ayew coming close to breaking the deadlock - Max Meyer did extremely well on the right hand side to square the ball to Ayew, but he poked the ball just wide from close range.
The Eagles had another opportunity when Van Aanholt set up Milivojevic, who cut inside and hit a curling effort towards the far post, but it went just wide of the far corner.
Missed opportunities were to be rued by Palace. Antonio set up Snodgrass to slot it past Guaita, and grab the lead for West Ham with a goal against the run of play.
Palace got back into the game to equalise shortly after - McArthur gathered the ball on the right-hand side and played a wonderful back-post cross to Ayew, heading it down for Kouyate, who against his former club, volleyed the ball underneath Roberto.
Ayew also turned provider again when he sent through substitute Connor Wickham, but he could only fire straight at the keeper in a one-on-one situation.
The Hammers had the chance to grab the winner through Snodgrass moments later, but Riedewald was there with a last-ditch tackle to deny the Scotsman and start an attack that would lead to the winner for Palace.
Right off the back of a chance for West Ham, Palace grabbed the winner through Ayew, who beat the whole backline with superb skill, deftly lobbed the keeper to send the stadium in raptures. This win secured Palace's double over the Hammers last season.
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Where to watch on TV
The news of fans not attending the game has resulted in the fixture going live on Amazon Prime Video at 8pm on Wednesday night.
The game is one of ten Premier League games on Amazon Prime with coverage starting at 7:30pm. The game is available for free without a subscription.
If you decide to sign up, Amazon will offer a 30-day free trial before they start charging you £7.99 a month. If you can't access Amazon then the game can be followed on our live blog here on VAVEL.
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Prediction
This is a hard game to call with both teams in form at the moment. West Ham are scoring goals but so are Palace, and both teams are defensively sound.
Balbuena and Ogbonna's partnership is providing solidity to the Hammers' back-four but they will need to be very aware of the danger that Eze and Zaha can cause when running at them. Benteke will also be a handful with his confidence rising in recent weeks.
Palace were very unlucky to not win the game against Spurs, and they will be very hard to beat with the partnership of Cahill and Kouyate glowing in their last couple of games. The stunning performances from Guaita is also noticeable, and he will be another factor David Moyes will have to take into account for Wednesday night.
The confidence glowing from both sides is there to see, so this game is likely to end in a draw with both sides unable to get the better of one another.
Prediction: West Ham 2-2 Crystal Palace