Crystal Palace vs Stoke City
English Premier League, Season 2017/18
Date: Saturday, 25th November 2017
Kick-off at 15:00 UK/ 16:00 CET
Venue: Selhurst Park (London).
Crystal Palace are hot favourites for relegation from the Premier League at the moment, but they have at least been showing some signs of improvement under Roy Hodgson. The major improvement to be made is their increased output in front of goal, which is a welcome break after they failed to score in their first seven Premier League games this season.
Last weekend they drew 2-2 at home to Everton, which isn’t an overly bad result but does extend their winless streak to four games in the league. They have still only won one Premier League game all season, which was that stunning and unexpected 2-1 win over Chelsea.
The Eagles have now scored six goals in their last five games, but defensively they just cannot get their act together. They are yet to keep a clean sheet this season and have conceded the joint second most goals in the league.
Stoke happen to hold that joint second worst defensive record alongside them. The 24 goals they have both conceded is beaten only by West Ham, although Stoke’s offensive ability has been largely better than Crystal Palace’s.
Still, it’s not been a great season so far for The Potters. They drew 2-2 at Brighton on Monday to make it two wins, two draws, and four defeats in their last eight league games to put them 15th in the table. They are only four points above the drop zone, so things could get hairy for them if they aren’t careful.
Like their opponents, Stoke struggle to keep the opposition at bay. They have only kept one clean sheet in their last ten league matches, but have managed to score in all but one of them as well. This, along with Palace’s record, makes backing Both Teams to Score look the best option here. Both of these sides have seen two of their last three league games end 2-2, and because of that we’re also backing a Draw and a 2-2 correct score predictions on Saturday.
Wilfried Zaha has been the one silver lining to the cloud surrounding Selhurst Park. He has scored three of their six league goals despite only playing half their games, and with all of them coming in his four home appearances backing him to find the net looks a good choice for our anytime goalscorer predictions.
Crystal Palace vs Stoke City: Head to head
Palace won six, lost three and drawn once in the last 10 meeting.
Out of these ten meetings, seven have resulted in both teams scoring while six have resulted in a total of over 2.5 goals.
At home, Palace are unbeaten in their last six meetings with Stoke in all competitions, 4 wins and 2 draws.
The corresponding fixture of last season saw a thumping 4-1 win for the Eagles.
Crystal Palace vs Stoke City: Predictions
Palace have improved a lot under Hodgson and their home form during the period stand out as in comparison with the initial phase of the campaign. Unbeaten in three with a win and back-to-back draws scoring three goals each, Palace are well poised to bag three points against a Stoke City team who had not won at the Selhurst Park in last five visits and lost four of them.
Despite the results not coming their way, the Potters had scored in every road game in Premier League this season expect one. Also, six of the last 10 meetings of the two teams have resulted in over 2.5 goals.
Hence this may be a free-scoring match with a lot of goals and the punters can find value in backing both teams to score with the odds priced at a healthy 1.85 and over 2.5 goals priced at an excellent 1.99 odd.
