Sports Mole previews Thursday’s Premier League clash between Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
The latest iteration of the so-called M23 derby takes place at Selhurst Park on Thursday evening, as Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion lock horns with Premier League points at stake.
Roy Hodgson‘s side produced a phenomenal comeback to draw 2-2 with Manchester City at the weekend, while the Seagulls were played off the park in a 2-0 beating at the hands of Arsenal.
Match preview
© Reuters
While Crystal Palace may already be no strangers to silencing the Etihad crowd, the Eagles’ wings were clipped early doors during the weekend’s showdown with the champions, who would ostensibly stroll to victory courtesy of Jack Grealish and Rico Lewis‘s efforts.
Palace spent most of the opening 75 minutes camped inside their own half, but as Pep Guardiola‘s men failed to add to their advantage, Hodgson’s men regained a shred of belief thanks to a Jean-Philippe Mateta tap-in before the Frenchman was felled in the area by Phil Foden in added time.
Cutting a perennially calm demeanour, Michael Olise slotted home from 12 yards to spark bedlam in the Etihad away end, as Hodgson’s side became the latest team to weaken Man City’s title credentials while also avoiding three successive defeats for the first time this season.
Discontent has been growing around Selhurst Park amid the Eagles’ winter woes, which has left Hodgson’s team 15th in the Premier League table, but Thursday’s hosts are comfortably eight points clear of the drop zone and ought to have received quite the injection of confidence from their marvellous Manchester fightback.
That four-goal stalemate represented just a second point from their last six matches for Palace, though, and the Eagles have also achieved an identical haul from their most recent six Premier League home games, losing each of their last four during a Selhurst Park plight.
© Reuters
Not since February 2017 have Palace been beaten in five successive Premier League contests at Selhurst Park, but any members of the home faithful who watched Brighton’s meek display away to another capital club in Arsenal may saunter through the turnstiles with a spring in their step on Thursday.
Certainly nursing a continental hangover from their historic evening against Marseille in the Europa League, Brighton succumbed to second-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz in a deserved defeat to the league leaders, whose wastefulness was the only thing that prevented them from marching to a more emphatic victory.
De Zerbi was under no illusions that his side deserved nothing in North London, claiming that the Gunners made his side ‘suffer’ in a way they are not accustomed to as they dropped below West Ham United into ninth in the table, albeit with a comfortable four-point buffer over 10th-placed Chelsea.
Defeat at the Emirates was just a second in 12 games in all competitions for the Seagulls, although both of those losses came back-to-back in the Premier League away to London clubs in Chelsea and Arsenal, the latter of whom ended Brighton’s magnificent 32-game scoring streak in the top flight.
The Seagulls also remain without a single Premier League away clean sheet this season, but they ended a seven-game winless run in the M23 derby with a 1-0 beating of Palace at the Amex in March, prior to which the two historic adversaries had played out three 1-1 stalemates on the spin.
Crystal Palace Premier League form:
Brighton & Hove Albion Premier League form:
Brighton & Hove Albion form (all competitions):
Advert – content below:
Team News
© Reuters
Palace launched a tremendous fightback against Man City despite being forced into a first-half rearguard change, as Joel Ward was substituted in the 34th minute with a hamstring issue, which Hodgson could not provide an update on straight after the game.
Ward joins an overflowing infirmary also holding Cheick Doucoure (Achilles), Jesurun Rak-Sakyi (thigh), Rob Holding (ankle), Sam Johnstone (calf), Odsonne Edouard (knee) and Jefferson Lerma (thigh), but Jordan Ayew is eligible to return from a one-game ban, and Eberechi Eze will expect a swift recall to the XI after a substitute cameo at the weekend.
Ayew will likely be a straight swap for Jeffrey Schlupp in the final third, although 19-year-old Matheus Franca and 18-year-old David Ozoh – who replaced Ward at the Etihad – earned high praise from Hodgson for their performances against City and could throw their hat into the ring for starting roles.
Rather eerily, Brighton also lost a right-back named Joel to injury in the first half of their loss to Arsenal, as Joel Veltman‘s race was run with just 27 minutes on the board, and De Zerbi has conceded that he is worried about the Dutchman’s knee pain.
The Seagulls boss is already without Julio Enciso and Solly March due to similar problems, while Tariq Lamptey, Pervis Estupinan and Ansu Fati are all on the mend from thigh issues, and De Zerbi cannot say when Adam Webster (knock) will be back in the fold either.
With Veltman expected to take his place on the sidelines for this one, academy graduate Jack Hinshelwood should be drafted in as an emergency right-back, but on a rare positive note, Danny Welbeck was fit enough for a second-half appearance against former club Arsenal following a hamstring injury.
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Henderson; Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Riedewald, Richards; Olise, Eze, Ayew; Mateta
Brighton & Hove Albion possible starting lineup:
Steele; Hinshelwood, Dunk, Van Hecke, Igor; Gross, Baleba; Adingra, Pedro, Mitoma; Ferguson
We say: Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Five of the last eight contests between Palace and Brighton have ended with the two clubs shaking hands on a 1-1 draw, and an identical outcome is not beyond the realm of possibility at Selhurst Park, as the hosts’ Etihad fightback may prove to be a catalyst for a turnaround in fortunes.
There will be no repeat of Brighton’s timid display at Arsenal, but with injuries and fatigue still rearing their ugly heads for the Seagulls, they may fall short in the capital once again.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
