Crystal Palace welcome Bournemouth to Selhurst Park in a mid-table Premier League clash.
Victory could see Palace climb to 11th if Chelsea lose elsewhere, whilst Bournemouth can leapfrog Palace into 12th with a win if Wolves also fail to take victory elsewhere.
Team News
Luka Milivojevic is ruled out for Crystal Palace after he suffered a muscle injury in training, having been an unused substitute in their defeat at Tottenham last weekend.
James McArthur (hamstring) and Jeffrey Schlupp (knock) are doubts but Nathan Ferguson (muscle) and James Tomkins (calf) remain ruled out.
Bournemouth could welcome Kieffer Moore back into contention, after the striker missed their defeat against Chelsea last weekend due to concussion.
Marcus Tavernier (hamstring), Hamed Traore (foot), Ryan Fredericks (calf) and Junior Stanislas (unspecified) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off
Palace host Bournemouth at Selhurst Park in a 3pm BST kick-off on Saturday 13 May, albeit untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Palace are unbeaten in eight of their last nine league meetings against Bournemouth (W5, D3, L1).
- Bournemouth have won just one of their last five league visits to Palace. (W1, D2, L2).
- Palace have kept clean sheets in each of their last four meetings against Bournemouth in all competitions – excluding penalty shootout exit in 2020-21 Carabao Cup (W3, D1).
- No Palace player has created more headed clearances than Joachim Andersen this season, who has made 107 headed clearances in 29 league appearances.
- Bournemouth are yet to score from a free-kick in the Premier League this season.
Prediction
With safety now mathematically confirmed, Palace can afford to relax a little but after a wasteful performance in their defeat at Tottenham last weekend, I would like to see them show more of the same attacking quality but with neater composure in their end product.
Roy Hodgson though can be pleased with Palace’s defensive efforts in North London because they were much more disciplined, aside from a momentary slip in marking which proved costly but they’re safe so it feels like a case of preparing the squad for next season in terms of momentum now.
Bournemouth meanwhile are virtually safe unless they lose their final three games and a crazy set of results in the final three matchweeks unfolds, which I don’t really see happening so this clash will also be about momentum building for the Cherries.
Palace though do seem to relish this fixture given their overall head-to-head form but Bournemouth have been playing more energetic football lately, so I do expect this to possibly be close with nothing riding on this game really.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-1 Bournemouth
Result: Crystal Palace 2-0 Bournemouth
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