Crystal Palace vs Burnley. Premier League.
Selhurst ParkAttendance24,696.
Saturday 13 January 2018 13:48, UK
Burnley will be looking to snap their worst run of results this season when they visit resurgent Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
Sean Dyche's men are without a win in five league games and have only scored more than one goal in just one of their last eight fixtures.
The Clarets have won the last three meetings between these two, including the reverse fixture earlier this season. Chris Wood's early goal was enough for a 1-0 win which ended up being Frank De Boer's final game in charge of Palace.
Those struggles seem an age away now at Selhurst Park as Roy Hodgson has overseen a surge up the table, losing just one of their last 11 Premier League matches.
However, respective knee and ankle injuries suffered by Jeffrey Schlupp and Andros Townsend in Monday's FA Cup third-round defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion have further reduced Hodgson's options against Burnley.
Joel Ward, Scott Dann, Mamadou Sakho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Connor Wickham and Jason Puncheon are also all unavailable, giving the manager what he believes could be the biggest injury crisis of his lengthy and varied career.
"Jeffrey will be operated on Monday and it is likely to be months for him. Andros doesn't need an operation," said the 70-year-old. "We hope he will be closer to one month rather than months.
"Mamadou Sakho is moving in the right direction. Joel Ward is getting closer, but is not ready yet.
"The last time I had something like this was at Inter (Milan). We had to fill our bench with youngsters: that is going back over 20 years.
"They are all trauma injuries. Mamadou Sakho is the only muscle injury. These are accidents that happen in the game."
Palace have an ever-lengthening injury list to contend with, with midfield duo Jeffrey Schlupp and Andros Townsend now both out of action.
Hodgson is already without the likes of Sakho, Dann, Ward, Puncheon and Wickham for the visit of Burnley.
Meanwhile, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou could go straight into the Burnley's line-up after signing on loan from Tottenham Hotspur until the end of the season.
The winger has impressed Dyche in training this week and the Clarets boss has confirmed Nkoudou will feature in some capacity as they aim to get back to winning ways.
However, Scott Arfield remains a doubt with a minor hamstring strain, while the trip will also come too soon for defender Stephen Ward (knee) and striker Chris Wood (leg).
Palace have picked up just one win in their last six league encounters with Burnley (W1 D1 L4) - failing to score in four of those games.
Burnley have won each of their last three Premier League games against Palace - they've only beaten a single side in four consecutive meetings in the competition once before (Hull City).
Burnley are unbeaten in each of their last three Premier League games in London (W2 D1), this after losing 13 of their 15 previous visits to the capital in the competition (D2).
After losing nine of their opening 11 Premier League games this season (W1 D1), Palace have lost just one of the following 11 in the competition (W4 D6).
Only Arsenal and Everton (12 each) have gained more points from losing positions in the Premier League this season than Palace (11).
There are some big games this weekend, starting with this one at Selhurst Park. Burnley have been great this season; getting a draw at Man Utd, winning at Chelsea. But I'm going to go for Palace here. This is a really tough one to predict though, it wouldn't surprise me if Burnley won, but I fancy Palace to just edge it.
PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1 (8/1 with Sky Bet)
