Crystal Palace welcome West Ham to Selhurst Park in a midweek London derby in the Premier League.
Should Leeds lose at Newcastle, victory could send Palace 12th whereas West Ham can climb to fourth with victory due to teams above them not playing until later in midweek.
Team News
Cheikhou Kouyate is a doubt for Palace after missing their defeat at Manchester City for personal reasons.
Wifried Zaha (knee) could also feature but Jeffrey Schlupp (hamstring), Wayne Hennessey, Mamadou Sakho, Nathan Ferguson, Connor Wickham (all thigh) and Martin Kelly (calf) are set to remain absent.
West Ham could be without Darren Randolph after the goalkeeper missed Saturday’s FA Cup win over Doncaster Rovers with a knock.
Arthur Masuaku remains sidelined with a knee injury.
Stat Attack
- Crystal Palace have lost just one of their last five meetings against West Ham (W2, D2, L1).
- West Ham have taken just two points from their last three trips to Selhurst Park (D2, L1).
- Both teams have scored in each of their last seven meetings.
- No Palace player has received more yellow cards in the league this season than Luka Milivojevic, with the Serbian midfielder collecting four yellow cards.
- Aaron Cresswell has produced 1352 touches in 19 league appearances this season, touching the ball more times than any other West Ham player.
Prediction
Palace will definitely come into this game as the fresher team after having a week off but simply must improve from their disastrous last outing because they were absolutely battered by Manchester City through poor passing and man-marking play on top of wasting their rare attacks.
West Ham were absolutely dominant in Saturday’s FA Cup win over Doncaster to continue their upturn in form, whilst marking a change from their scrappy wins of recent weeks so I am hoping that we will see another fighting performance here.
Either way, both teams have different reasons to go for the win which should make for a good match which has a tendency for goals at both end, although if West Ham can get on the front foot and continue to build their momentum with another strong performance then they could take this.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 West Ham
Result: Crystal Palace 2-3 West Ham
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