Tottenham Hotspur vs Crystal Palace; Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur vs Crystal Palace. Premier League.
White Hart LaneAttendance35,723.
Tottenham v Crystal Palace preview: Super Sunday in town for London derby
Sunday 20 September 2015 13:28, UK
Tottenham and Crystal Palace meet in an intriguing London derby at White Hart Lane live on Super Sunday.
Spurs were in action in midweek, beating Qarabag 3-1 in the Europa League while Palace will have the fresher legs having had eight days off following their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City last Saturday.
Team news
Mousa Dembele (foot), Ryan Mason and Christian Eriksen (both knee) could all feature for Tottenham after being absent for the 3-1 Europa League win over Qarabag.
Nabil Bentaleb (ankle) will miss out after suffering a knock ahead of Sunday's victory over Sunderland while Harry Kane is likely to return to the starting line-up.
Crystal Palace could welcome back Damien Delaney, Joe Ledley and Connor Wickham for the trip to north London.
Defender Delaney is fit after a groin problem, midfielder Ledley has recovered from a hamstring injury and striker Wickham is due to train on Saturday following a rib knock.
Full-back Joel Ward remains sidelined by a knee injury and forward Marouane Chamakh is out with hamstring trouble.
Opta stats
Palace have won only three of their last 19 Premier League London derbies away from home (D5 L11), but two of these have come under Alan Pardew.
Spurs have won just one of their six home PL clashes with Crystal Palace (D4 L1).
Tottenham have failed to score a first-half goal in any of their last 10 games against the Eagles in the Premier League.
Crystal Palace have won just four of their 22 Premier League games in the month of September (W4 D7 L11).
Bakary Sako has had a hand in nine goals in his last 10 league games (five goals and four assists for Wolves/Crystal Palace combined).
Since Alan Pardew took charge of Palace in January 2015, Palace have scored more goals from set-pieces than any other side in the Premier League (16).
Merson's prediction
Tottenham fans are not going to be happy with me. I went with them last week at Sunderland, but not this week! After playing on Thursday, going up against Palace, who are flying and were unlucky against City, just plays into Palace's hands away from home.
It is not through bias, I just think Palace have the pace to catch Spurs. Tottenham fans are going to turn up and be begging their team to get forward. But there is no Ryan Mason, no Mousa Dembele, there are too many out.
Spurs should have more points than they have, that's true, but they haven't and there must be a reason for that. Palace have just been to Chelsea and beat them well, and I'll be backing them for a win here.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-3 (Sky Bet odds 33/1)
Betting
Tottenham are marginally odds-on at 19/20 with Sky Bet, who doubt Crystal Palace's chances of adding to their remarkable record on the road at 14/5 for the victory. Spurs remain 13/2 outsiders to finished in the top-four despite their first win of the season last weekend, while Alan Pardew's men are odds-on for a top-half finish at 8/13. Harry Kane's goal drought fails to prevent Sky Bet from making him the 7/2 favourite in the first goalscorer betting, while Connor Wickham is considered the visitors' biggest threat despite his inability to find the net for the Eagles to date.