Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United

Selhurst Park is the venue as mid-table Crystal Palace and top-four hopefuls Newcastle United meet in an exciting Premier League match-up.

Michael Olise’s last-gasp free-kick stunner helped Crystal Palace hold Manchester United to a 1-1 midweek draw, ending a disappointing run of back-to-back Premier League home defeats ‘to nil.’ However, Patrick Vieira’s men have only won one of their six post-World Cup matches (D1, L4), casting doubt on their survival hopes. Despite boasting an eight-point lead over 18th-placed West Ham United, an ongoing spell of three encounters against top-four opposition could soon make Palace feel uncomfortable. The ‘Eagles’ have kept Newcastle goalless twice this season (D2), which bodes well for their bid to defy an underwhelming Premier League home record against the ‘Magpies’ (W2, D4, L5). Low scoring has been a common theme in their recent top-flight H2Hs in London, with each of the last five featuring under 2.5 goals.

In the meantime, Newcastle United got their hopes of claiming a long-awaited Premier League top-four finish back on track with a late 1-0 home triumph over Fulham last weekend, ending a blunt streak of consecutive 0-0 league draws. Unbeaten in their previous 14 Premier League matches (W9, D5), the ‘Magpies’ are on the cusp of making history as they’ve never gone 15 consecutive top-flight games without losing. Eddie Howe’s men have impressively not lost any of their three Premier League visits to London this season (W2, D1). Howe has based his side’s outstanding season on a water-tight backline that has conceded a league-low 11 goals and kept more clean sheets (11) than any other side. Particularly cagey early on, they’ve shipped a league joint-low one away goal in the first half.