All the hopes and dreams of a new season is upon us as the Eagles kick off the campaign with a trip up to Sheffield to take on the newly promoted Blades.
MATCH INFORMATION
- 3pm
- 12th August 2023
-
Bramall Lane, Sheffield S2 4QX
PREVIOUS MEETING
The last time Palace made the journey to Bramall Lane was as the 2020/21 season came to a conclusion. A very early striker from Christian Benteke gave the visitors the lead, and sealed the points with a goal from Eberechi Eze in the final minutes.
WHO SCORED MAN OF THE MATCH – Eberechi Eze (9.2)
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: John Brooks. Assistants: Lee Betts, Akil Howson. Fourth official: Sam Allison. VAR: Tony Harrington. Assistant VAR: Eddie Smart.
TEAM NEWS
PALACE – Michael Olise and Matheus Franca are absent due to injury while Will Hughes is a major doubt. Tyrick Mitchell could feature after sustaining an injury in pre-season.
BLADES – Daniel Jebbison is expected to face a late fitness tests but Oliver Norwood and Oliver McBurnie are likely to be fit. John Fleck, Rhian Brewster, Ismaila Coulibaly, Jayden Bogle and Rhys Norrington-Davies all miss out.
FORM GUIDE
Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;
- 08/05/2021 United 0-2 Palace
- 02/01/2021 Palace 2-0 United
- 01/02/2020 Palace 0-1 United
- 18/08/2019 United 1-0 Palace
- 19/02/2011 Palace 1-0 United
Last FIVE results for Palace:
- 28/05/23 Palace 1-1 Forest
- 20/05/23 Fulham 2-2 Palace
- 13/05/23 Palace 2-0 Bournemouth
- 06/05/23 Spurs 1-0 Palace
- 29/04/23 Palace 4-3 West Ham
Last FIVE results for the Blades;
- 08/05/23 Birmingham 1-2 United
- 04/05/23 Huddersfield 1-0 United
- 29/04/23 United 4-1 Preston
- 26/04/23 United 2-0 West Brom
- 22/04/23 Manchester City 3-0 United
RECORD AGAINST THE BLADES
- Played 57
- Won 23
- Drawn 12
- Lost 22
ONE TO WATCH
ANEL AHMEDHODZIC
FORMER CLUBS – Nottingham Forest, Malmo FF, Hobro IK (loan), Bordeaux (loan)
The former Swedish, now Bosnian international, joined the club in July 2022 and was a key part of the solid defensive unit that saw the Blades return to the Premier League. To date, Anel has made 34 appearances for the club, scoring 6 goals.
KEY CLASH
JEFFERSON LERMA v OLIVER NORWOOD
The Columbian is expected to make his debut against the Blades this weekend and fans will be interested to see what he brings to the Palace midfield alongside Cheick Doucoure. It is anticipated he will be up against seasoned Northern Irish midfielder, Oliver Norwood who is closing in on 200 appearances for the hosts.
PRE-MATCH FACTS
Last season, only Manchester City (17) won more home league games than Sheffield United (16) in the top 2 tiers of English football.
Palace have lost their opening league game in each of the last 2 seasons (0-3 v Chelsea, 0-2 v Arsenal). They’ve never done so in 3 consecutive top-flight campaigns before.
Sheffield United have won their opening league game in just 1 of the last 9 seasons (D1 L7), beating Brentford 1-0 in 2017-18. They’ve lost their last 3 in a row, only once having a longer such run (4 between 1928-29 and 1931-32).
Palace’s Eberechi Eze has been involved in 4 goals in his last 4 league games against Sheffield United, finding the net in both of his Premier League games against them. Against no side has he either scored (3) or been involved in (4) more league goals than against the Blades.
The Eagles won 25 points from losing positions in last season’s Premier League, 9 more than any other club, with 7 of their 11 wins earned after falling behind.
It took United until January to win a game in their last top-flight campaign and their run of 17 winless matches from the start of the season is a Premier League record.
Sheffield United have lost just 1 of their past 5 home league games with Palace, although it was a 2-0 defeat in their last encounter in May 2021.
Palace are seeking 3 successive league wins over the Blades for the first time since doing so between 1992 and 1995.
The winning team has keep a clean sheet in all 6 of the Premier League meetings.
TEB PREDICTION
We know all too well what it can be like taking on a newly promoted team at the start of a new season, and this opening day fixture is unlikely to be much different. However, having spoken to the opposition this week leading up to the game, the hosts are not brimming with confidence after a very disappointing summer from their perspective which looks to have weakened them rather than strengthen. That could mean an opportunity for the Eagles to take advantage and get off to the best possible start.
FINAL SCORE: United 1-2 Palace
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