Brentford meet Crystal Palace in a London derby at Gtech Community Stadium.
Thomas Frank’s Bees will look to improve upon last season’s struggles, whilst Palace begin their first full campaign under Oliver Glasner.
Team News
New signing, Igor Thiago is ruled out for Brentford until New Year with a knee injury suffered in pre-season.
Aaron Hickey (hamstring), Josh Dasilva and Rico Henry (both knee) remain absent.
Fabio Carvalho could make his debut following his move from Liverpool this week.
Palace will be without Matheus Franca due to a rib injury in training.
Chadi Riad, Daichi Kamada and Ismaila Sarr could make their competitive debuts for Palace, following their arrivals this summer.
When is Kick-Off?
Brentford host Palace at Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday 18 August at 2pm BST, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Brentford are winless in six previous Premier League meetings against Palace (D5, L1).
- Palace have drawn all three Premier League visits to Brentford (D3), of which their last two trips finished in 1-1 results.
- This is the fourth straight season in which Brentford and Palace have met in August.
- Brentford lost just one of six London derbies in the league at home last season (W1, D4, L1).
- Palace failed to win any of their six London derbies on the road last season (D3, L3).
Prediction
Although their pre-season has been quiet with no concrete offers for Ivan Toney, Brentford’s defence continued to look leaky which really does need reinforcement if want to fight for a top-ten finish.
Palace meanwhile will be glad to have kept Eberechi Eze following Michael Olise’s transfer to Bayer Munich, because they do have potential for a strong season given their impressive goalscoring form since Glasner took over.
I therefore am anticipating a cracking contest here between both teams if bring their attacking best, but if Palace can pick up from where they finished in May then they should snatch this.
Prediction: Brentford 1-2 Crystal Palace
Result: Brentford 2-1 Crystal Palace
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