Date: Saturday, February 7 Venue: Selhurst Park Kick-Off: 15:00
Team News
Crystal Palace may hand debuts to their deadline day trio of Tom Ince, Joe Ledley and Scott Dann. Glenn Murray, the Eagles top scorer last season, is yet to feature this season because of a knee injury but he could feature in this game. West Brom are without the injured trio of Jonas Olsson, Nicolas Anelka and Stephane Sessegnon. However James Morrison returns from injury and new signing Thievy Bifouma is expected to take a place on the substitutes bench.
Key Stats
Crystal Palace have only lost one home game under Tony Pulis, picking up 13 points from a possible 18. However, Jason Puncheon is the only player to score in the clubs last six games. The Eagles have only scored 15 goals all season but they defeated West Brom in the FA Cup last month and they won the last league meetings between the two sides 3-0 back in 2004-05. West Brom are yet to pick up a win under Pepe Mel and they've only won once in their last 14 games. They've also only picked up one away win all season- against Manchester United in September. They have won just four games all season, the lowest in the league, and have drawn eleven, the highest in the division. They're also the side with the largest amount of different scorers with 15 different players finding the net.
The season has well and truly taken shape, with these sides currently joint on points and hovering cautiously above the relegation zone. However, the home side are on the rise and the visitors are in decline. Palace haven't lost at home since before christmas and have lost just two of their last five- against the North London sides. They're starting to find form at the right time, picking up valuable victories against Hull City and Stoke City. They did very good business on deadline day bringing in five additions- which may just save them. West Brom, on the other hand, haven't won since New Years Day. They picked up decent draws with Liverpool and Everton but lost to Aston Villa and Southampton. With just four wins all season this team really does struggle to pick up victories. I can't see them changing that at Selhurst Park, where Palace are strong. Prediction 1-0 source - bbc football
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
