Crystal Palace begin 2026 with a mid-table Premier League encounter against London rivals, Fulham.
Locked on 26 points apiece, victory would lift Palace or Fulham up to seventh ahead of the late kick-offs involving Brentford and Sunderland.
Team News
Chris Richards is again ruled out for Palace after he missed their 1-0 home defeat to Tottenham due to a foot injury.
Eddie Nketiah (knock), Cheick Doucoure, Chadi Riad, Daniel Munoz (all knee), Daichi Kamada (hamstring), Ismaila Sarr (international duty), Rio Cardines (adductor) and Caleb Kporha (back) remain absent.
Fulham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 1-0 victory at West Ham.
Calvin Bassey, Samuel Chukwueze, Alex Iwobi (all international duty), Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon (both hamstring) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Palace host Fulham at Selhurst Park on New Year’s Day at 5:30pm GMT, live on Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Crystal Palace have avoided defeat in five of their last six league meetings against Fulham (W2, D3, L1).
- Fulham are unbeaten in their last four visits to Palace (W2, D2).
- Palace have failed to score in any of their last four home games against Fulham, during which they conceded five goals in two of those four games, in which the other two ended in goalless draws.
- Palace are looking to avoid suffering four consecutive league losses for the first time since March 2023.
- Joachim Andersen has been booked in Fulham’s last three matches (W3).
Prediction
Without a win in their last three matches and having lacked a clinical edge against Tottenham in spite of their dominance, Palace really need to find their finishing touches again if want to get back into the hunt for European qualification but their defensive focus need to be more consistent.
Fulham meanwhile were patient but crucially clinical in their win at West Ham in which they looked sharp whenever they got on the attack, although their defence was left vulnerable at times to the counter-attack but their confidence and form is in a strong place for a push for European qualification.
Both teams though are locked on 26 points apiece and know that defeat here could be a small knock in their hunt for a shot at the European spots, so I expect this to be close with Palace this time grinding out a draw.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-1 Fulham
Result: Crystal Palace 1-1 Fulham
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