Premier League: Crystal Palace- Middlesbrough
We/I backed Palace to win at Middlesbrough in early season, they won 2-1 and a couple of games later they were 7th in the Premier league and things looked rosy, they had spent money in the summer, it looked wisely and I never thought they would get sucked into a relegation battle. Big Sam Allardyce (pictured) has so far been unable to address the slide and they are now 19th and in big trouble, having won just once in 11 starts, losing eight. I am rather at a loss to fully explain why, the squad looks decent and I felt Allardyce was the man to help them regroup and that, compared to the job he had to do at Sunderland last season, this was a piece of cake !
Maybe he did too and that has been the trouble !
Well, everyone now knows the truth and that the Eagles are figthing for their lives.
That sole win under Allardyce came at Bournemoth, ahead of which I wrote......
No improvement yet for Palace under Sam Allardyce and they have slipped into the bottom three. But Sunderland upped their game under him last season after the window closed and I do expect the same to happen to the Eagles from now on in. The overall quality at Selhurst Park is much better than he was dealing with at the Black Cats and he has added Patrick van Aanholt and Jeffrey Schlupp in two big money moves and gets Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako back from the ACN and although Schlupp cannot play tonight, this will be much more like the real Eagles and if you had to face any midtable team right now on the road, you would probably opt for the defensively suspect Cherries. Bournemouth have conceded 26 goals in their last 11 starts, three in eight of those and Palace do pose an offensive threat we do not normally see in relegation haunted teams, only one team outside the top 7 has scored more and on the road, no team outside the top 5.
You have to favour them to score tonight and Bounemouth have not given up one without at least a second goal following in 16 starts. Circa 3.0 for Palace to score twice is attractive.....
They won 2-0, but all that good work was undone in a 4-0 home reverse to Sunderland the following week. Last time out they visited Stoke and that looked a good opportunity to bounce back ...............
Selhurst Park is not a happy place at present and the atmosphere has turned a little toxic, so I doubt that Palace will be too unhappy to be on the road today. Stoke City are in mid table safety and are similarly struggling on home soil, failing to win in five of their last six games here at the Britannia Stadium and are having big trouble holding onto leads. The visitors £13m window signing Luka Milivojevic has finally had his work visa approved and will be available along with Jeffrey Schlupp, loan signing Mamadou Sakho and left-back Patrick van Aanholt, £40m worth of new signings, which, along with Remy, Townsend, Zaha and Benteke, mean this is not your usual relegation squad and I do think they will survive and they can start their climb away from the drop zone with a point + today.
It didn't come, they lost 1-0 and they have had to sit and stew on recent results for 14 long days, they now play Boro and WBA away next weekend, followed by another 14 day break, so just these two pivotal fixtures in a five week period that might very well decide their future. They need to win one and it is obvious that this is the easiest on paper and should they do the double over Boro, it will lift the pressure for the trip to the Hawthorns and maybe enable them to perform, like this quality of player should be able to. The win at the Riverside also came after a 14 day break and with Boro having played a cup tie last weekend, Palace have all the advantages and for my money are the much better squad and I am not sure what survival "master" Allardyce can say should they come up short today. I favour them to win and stay up, but do not see them winning a close one at present, so prefer to go with ..............
1.25 units Crystal Palace -0.75 ball 2.51 asian line/Sportmarket.
Good Luck.
