For the first home game of 2017, Palace welcome Swansea City to Selhurst Park and nobody needs any reminder how the last meeting between the two ended up.
While there is unlikely to be a repeat this reverse fixture, there is little doubt that the Eagles will be keen to make amends for what was a disappointing loss in the dying minutes of the game at the Liberty Stadium.
This will be the third match in charge of Palace for Sam Allardyce and he will already be well aware of which areas of the squad need attention now that the January transfer window is open for business.
As for Swansea, they have appointment former Derby County boss and Real Madrid assistant Paul Clement who will face a tough battle in the months ahead as Swansea City currently sit bottom of the table and four points from safety. A loss to Palace will put them seven points from 17th place.
TEAM NEWS
CRYSTAL PALACE – Zeki Fryers (muscular), James McArthur (calf) and Joe Ledley (calf) could feature but Connor Wickham (knee), Pape Souare (leg), Steve Mandanda (knee), Loic Remy (calf) and Jonathan Benteke (knee) all miss out.
SWANSEA CITY – Wayne Routlege (mouth) and Fernando Llorent (ankle) but Jefferson Montero (hamstring) will not play any part.
ACTION REPLAY
The last meeting between the two sides ended in a glut of goals which all began with Wilfried Zaha giving the Eagles the lead after just 19 minutes. Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson levelled things up going into the break with a sublime free kick. The hosts got themselves in front for the first time on 66 minutes courtesy of Leroy Fer and he grabbed a second and City’s third just two minutes later.
Many expected that to seal the win for the Swans but Palace had other ideas and James Tomkins gave the Eagles hope with one back as just fifteen minutes remained. Six minutes to go and Jack Cork scored a crazy own goal to level things up and just two minutes later Christian Benteke put the visitors into an unexpected lead. Just when Palace would have expected to have seen out the win, the hosts secured all three points thanks to two goals in injury time from Fernando Llorente.
Who Scored Star Man – Christian Benteke (9.1)
FORM GUIDE
Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;
- 26/11/2016: Swansea City 5-4 Crystal Palace
- 06/02/2016: Swansea City 1-1 Crystal Palace
- 28/12/2015: Crystal Palace 0-0 Swansea City
- 24/05/2015: Crystal Palace 1-0 Swansea City
- 29/11/2014: Swansea City 1-1 Crystal Palace
Last FIVE results for Palace;
- 01/01/2017: Arsenal x-x Crystal Palace
- 26/12/2016: Watford 1-1 Crystal Palace
- 17/12/2016: Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
- 14/12/2016: Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United
- 10/12/2016: Hull City 3-3 Crystal Palace
Last FIVE results for Swansea;
- 31/12/2016: Swansea City 0-3 Bournemouth
- 26/12/2016: Swansea City 1-4 West Ham United
- 17/12/2016: Middlesbrough 3-0 Swansea City
- 14/12/2016: West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Swansea City
- 10/12/2016: Swansea City 3-0 Sunderland
FORM PLAYERS (courtesy of Who Scored)
Top two rated players from each team so far this season;
- Wilfried Zaha 7.52
- Christian Benteke 7.42
- Gylfi Sigurdsson 7.12
- Leroy Fer 7.07
ONE TO WATCH
FERNANDO LLORENTE
The former Spanish international was signed from Sevilla in August on a two year deal. He was capped 24 times by his country and scored 7 goals, his last coming in 2013 and was also capped by the Basque Country on 5 occasions, scoring one goal. The Pamplona born striker made his professional debut with Basconia in 2003 and then played for Bilbao Athletic before making making the first of 262 appearances with Athletico Bilbao who he scored 85 goals for.
In 2013, Juventus signed Llorente where he won three Serie A titles and the Coppa Italia once and managed 66 appearances and scored 23 goals. The stint at Sevilla was quite brief before arriving at the Liberty but he managed 23 appearances and 4 goals as well as a Europa League winners medal.
PREDICTION
Final league position – 19th
It has been a terrible season so far for the Swans with the club going through several changes which has clearly altered their once much admired setup. With new owners arriving it was not long for them to appoint their own man in the shape of former USA coach Bob Bradley. It did not work and now Paul Clement has a chance of seeing what he can do in an attempt to give the South Wales club a fighting chance of survival.
- TEB prediction – home win
- Guto Llewelyn prediction (see link below) – home win
- Who Scored prediction – home win
BETTING ODDS (courtesy of Paddy Power)
- Home – 17/20
- Draw – 5/2
- Away – 7/2
- Both teams to score – 7/2
FIND OUT WHAT GUTO LLEWELYN FROM THE JACK CAST TOLD TEB THIS WEEK IN THE SWANSEA VIEW
