Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Preview

Crystal Palace play the third of their run of consecutive games against 4 of the “Big 6” when they host Tottenham Hotspur in a 17:30 UK kickoff on Saturday in a week 12 game at Selhurst Park. Palace drew 2-2 with Arsenal in first game of the run before losing 1-3 to Chelsea last weekend. They duke it out with Pochettino’s Spurs on Saturday before travelling to Old Trafford to face Manchester United after the November international break.

The Eagles are in a poor run of form, taking only 5 points from their last 10 Premier League games. They have lost 5 of their last 6 games in all competitions and 4 of the last 5 in the Premier League and drawn one. This kind of form puts Palace in a relegation fight with 8 points from the 11 games played so far in the league. They are 14th in the table but just 3 points above bottom placed Fulham. Roy Hodgson however is upbeat about Palace’s chances of escaping relegation by claiming Palace is playing well enough to beat the drop and will soon begin a march up the table. Indeed Palace held Arsenal to a 2-2 draw at home 2 weeks ago and held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw for 65 minutes until 2 goals one each from Morata and Pedro broke their back for a 3-1 win for the Blues. Hodgson cannot continue playing the tenacity card, sooner or later, results will have to match their grit.

This is the longest run at the start of a season since the 1997/78 season that Palace have failed to get three points in a home game. That season they went 15 home matches before taking their first 3 points at home. This season they have gone 5 games and while 15 games is a long stretch from 5, Hodgson must feel a team with the quality of players he has at his disposal should have picked up full home points in the league already. The Eagles will have to find more routes to goal as they have suffered in the absence of Christian Benteke while the goal scoring burden fell to Wilf Zaha.

Mauricio Pochettino has in the not too distant past admitted to the low mood amongst the players following poor results against PSV Eindhoven and Manchester City. That must however have changed following 3 straight wins over West Ham, Wolves and PSV in all competitions. Their Champions League’s hopes may hang by a thin thread but they are very much alive in the league in 4th position after taking 24 points from 11 games just 5 points behind leaders Manchester City who face rivals Manchester United this weekend.

Spurs cannot afford to dip into poor form and results with sharks waiting to highlight the club’s failure to spend in the summer and the uncertainties surrounding the move into their new stadium as reasons behind any potential crisis on the pitch. Spurs have won 8 of their first 11 games in the league and also boast the best away record in the league as well as recording wins in their last 5 London derbies.

Team News

Hugo Lloris is back in the Spurs team following a European suspension while Kieran Trippier and Erik Lamela should return to the team having missed out against PSV in midweek. Victor Wanyama is poised for a return while Danny Rose will be assessed. Vertonghen is out till December while Dembele has been ruled out till 2019.

There are no new injury worries for Palace after last week’s loss to Chelsea but they still have Scott Dann, Joel Ward, Christian Benteke and Connor Wickham all sidelined with injury.

Verdict

Spurs know there’s a huge battle for top 4 this year and with City and United set to battle in the Manchester Derby this weekend, they have to take maximum points from this game to gain a march over other top 4 contenders. Palace will also find Tottenham a hard nut to crack. Expect a keenly contested game but ultimately a Spurs win.