Crystal Palace will attempt to continue their recent resurgence when they travel across London to face West Ham.
Most recently Crystal Palace won 2-0 on the road against Leicester. Jean-Philippe Mateta kept his composure and dribbled the ball around Jakub Stolarczyk. Marc Guehi would then volley the ball into the net at the back post to double the lead from an Ebere Eze freekick.
As it stands, Oliver Glasner has won and drawn more games than he’s lost as Palace manager and is the first person since Terry Venables from 1976-1980 to have the Eagles in such a position.
As for West Ham, they won 3-2 against Fulham in Potter’s first league game. Carlos Soler, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta were all on the scoresheet.
Crystal Palace sit 15th in the league on 24 points and have moved well clear of the relegation zone after a slow start to the season. They have only one loss in their last ten Premier League matches.
West Ham sit 13th in the league on 26 points meaning a win for Palace would take them above the Hammers in the table.
The last time the two sides met was on the second game week of the season, with the Irons taking all three points. That game was Julen Lopetegui’s first win as West Ham boss. Tomas Soucek and captain Jarrod Bowen were on the scoresheet that day.
However, the Spaniard would not last long as manager of the East London side with Potter recently replacing Lopetegui in the West Ham dugout.
-
Impeccable on the road
Oliver Glasner’s side are relishing an away day at the moment. The Eagles have gone six successive away fixtures unbeaten in the Premier League.
This is a club record run away from home since February 1992. The last time Palace were beaten on the road was on the 21st October when they lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest. Chris Wood scored for Forest that day.
Since then, Palace have enjoyed wins over, Ipswich, rivals Brighton and Leicester.
Jean-Philippe Mateta helped Palace to a 1-0 win at Portman Road while Ismaila Sarr and Trevoh Chalobah both netted at the Amex.
They have also picked up points from Wolves, Aston Villa and Bournemouth. They failed to score in a goalless draw against the Cherries but drew 2-2 twice away in the Midlands.
-
A strong defensive cohort
On their travels Crystal Palace have conceded the least goals of any team in the division at this point in the season, joint with Ange Postecoglu’s Tottenham with both only conceding 11 times on the road
Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell have been ever present at wing-back with Maxence Lacroix, Marc Guehi and Trevoh Chalobah starting most games at centre back.
However, Palace will have to fair without Chalobah for the rest of the season as Chelsea chose to activate the recall clause in his loan deal on Wednesday morning ahead of the Leicester game.
Crystal Palace are not said to be after another centre-back in the January window and will trust Chris Richards and Chadi Riad.
Riad has recently returned to the first team squad after a period of four months out on the sidelines with an MCL injury. He has been building up his fitness by playing for the under 21 side and managed 90 minutes in the FA Cup victory against Stockport County.
Richards played the full 90 minutes at the King Power Stadium on Wednesday and made a number of key passes and made five clearances and three recoveries.
He has played Palace’s last four games helping them to two clean sheets, three wins and a draw.
-
Who will start on the right of the front three?
Glasner has confirmed that winger Ismaila Sarr is a doubt for West Ham. He has a slight problem with his hamstring since the Leicester game.
In that game he assisted Mateta’s goal which made it 1-0 to Palace.
There are two main options which the Austrian manager could go with if Sarr cannot play.
The first of which is Daichi Kamada.
In his half hour on the pitch against Leicester the Japanese international completed all bar one of his passes. He also won a tackle and made an interception. Against Stockport last weekend he also grabbed the assist for Eze’s goal.
While Kamada is growing in confidence, Glasner could choose to play Eddie Nketiah on the right.
The former Arsenal man has played much of his minutes on the right-hand side this season with Glasner opting to play Mateta as a sole striker.
The striker has struggled to adapt to life in South London as he has only registered one goal contribution in the league which was an assist for Sarr’s second goal against Brighton.
-
A threat from set pieces
Only Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have scored from more set pieces than Crystal Palace this season.
The Eagles have scored nine times from set pieces in the 2024/25 spot.
This is quite a turn for Palace as they went over a calendar year without scoring from a corner.
While one of the main threats in Chalobah has departed, Marc Guehi proved that he is capable with chipping in at the back post with a great volley in Palace’s last game.
