Sunday 6 March 2016 12:10, UK
Crystal Palace are bottom of the Premier League form table, but Liverpool could be their ideal opponents on Super Sunday.
Alan Pardew's side have gone 11 league games without a win, a run that includes defeats in their last four top-flight matches at Selhurst Park.
It's a sequence that has seen them fall from fifth to 14th, their lowest position this season, prompting worries they could sink yet further into a relegation scrap.
The visit of Liverpool, fresh from a 3-0 victory over Man City, would ordinarily do little to assuage concerns, but Palace have an excellent recent record against their weekend opponents.
The Eagles have won six of their last 11 meetings, including back-to-back league victories at Anfield. Pardew even masterminded Jurgen Klopp's first defeat back in November, a 2-1 win on Merseyside with goals for Yannick Bolasie and Scott Dann.
And the games in south London have arguably been more memorable. Rickie Lambert edged Liverpool ahead in November 2014, only for Palace to surge to a 3-1 win, and their remarkable fightback in a 3-3 draw six months earlier was one of the games of the season.
It was a result that badly damaged Liverpool's title bid, as the visitors conceded three goals in the final 12 minutes to let a 3-0 lead slip, so a return to Selhurst Park is unlikely to prompt positive memories.
Sunday's hosts have won four and drawn one of their last six league encounters between the two clubs - and you have to go all the way back to December 1997 to find Liverpool's last win at the ground. On that occasion, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and Oyvind Leonhardsen each found the net in a 3-0 win.
Pardew has a new contract agreed in principle, but with their Premier League status still mathematically in the balance, the manager is delaying putting pen to paper.
And there's no getting away from their current predicament following a run of relegation form that includes seven defeats and two draws from nine games since the turn of the year.
Damien Delaney and Dann were rightly lauded for their partnership early on this season as Palace conceded just 16 in their first 19 games, but they've shipped 21 in nine since.
The goals have dried up too, although the return to fitness and form of Connor Wickham, who has found the net four times in his last two games, has proved a timely boost.
Their eight home defeats this season is a joint-league high alongside bottom-of-the-table Aston Villa, hardly reassuring company, but if recent history is anything to go by, there are reasons for optimism for Palace this weekend.
