Crystal Palace vs Norwich: Premier League preview, team news, stats, predictions, kick-off time
Wilfried Zaha is banned for Crystal Palace while Norwich are still without Tim Krul and Grant Hanley; follow Crystal Palace vs Norwich in our dedicated live match blog; watch free match highlights on Sky Sports digital platforms and YouTube channel shortly after full-time
Tuesday 28 December 2021 14:26, UK
Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Crystal Palace vs Norwich in the Premier League on Tuesday; kick-off 3pm.
Team news
Crystal Palace will be without Wilfried Zaha for the visit of Norwich. Zaha was sent off in the 3-0 loss at Tottenham on Boxing Day and will serve a one-match ban.
Palace will assess their Covid-hit squad, which was missing Vicente Guaita, Luka Milivojevic, Eberechi Eze, Christian Benteke, Michael Olise and Nathaniel Clyne at Spurs, alongside boss Patrick Vieira who was a confirmed positive case.
Crystal Palace provisional squad: Guaita, Ward, Tomkins, Guehi, Mitchell, Gallagher, Kouyate, Hughes, Ayew, Edouard, Butland, Clyne, Kelly, Andersen, Riedewald, Schlupp, Milivojevic, Olise, Eze, Benteke, Matthews, Rak-Sakyi, Mateta.
Norwich will have none of their absentees back for the trip to Selhurst Park.
The Canaries sit bottom of the table having lost 5-0 to Arsenal on Boxing Day, where a number of their first-team squad were missing.
Tim Krul (Covid) is still out, as are Grant Hanley (shoulder), Lukas Rupp (hamstring), Andrew Omobamidele (back) and Milot Rashica (groin).
Norwich provisional squad: Gunn, McGovern, Aarons, Gibson, Kabak, Williams, Gilmour, Placheta, Dowell, Sorensen, McLean, Pukki, Byram, Mumba, Giannoulis, Cantwell, Lees-Melou, Idah, Sargent, Tzolis.
How to follow
Follow Crystal Palace vs Norwich in our dedicated live match blog. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after full-time.
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Jones Knows predicts...
Norwich are hapless. Off the pitch, their sensible business structure and ability to produce talent deserves huge respect but there's no denying they have got their decision making horribly wrong back up at the top table. Dean Smith hasn't stumbled across his best formation or starting XI, their best player Teemu Pukki is starved of service and confidence must be at rock bottom, scoring once in their last six games - and that came against 10-man Newcastle. Backing teams to beat them to nil seems an obvious yet profitable strategy - so let's roll that dice again at 13/8 with Sky Bet.
Palace will be lining up without the suspended man-child Wilfried Zaha, whose unprofessional and sulky conduct is becoming a little boring now. But at 29-years-old, he's never going to change.
Without Zaha, my eyes have been drawn to the Palace corners market. His direct dribbles down the left are a catalyst for how Palace win their corners, without him their average drops immensely. In the past 12 months, Zaha has been missing for seven games and in those matches Palace have averaged just 2.7 corners per 90 minutes. That's a sharp decline on their overall average of four per 90 minutes with him in the side. Patrick Vieira's side rank low for corners anyway - the fifth lowest in the league, possibly due to their defensive focused full-backs.
I'm happy to back them at 11/10 with Sky Bet to win five corners or less.
SCORE PREDICTION: 2-0
BETTING ANGLE: Back Palace to win five or less corners (11/10 with Sky Bet)
Last time out...
Opta stats
- Crystal Palace have won three of their last four Premier League games against Norwich (D1), as many as they had in their previous 20 top-flight meetings with the Canaries (D7 L10).
- After winning five consecutive away league games against Crystal Palace between 1991 and 1996, Norwich are winless in their last 16 visits to Selhurst Park against the Eagles (D5 L11).
- Crystal Palace haven't won their final league game in any of the last nine calendar years (D7 L2), since beating Millwall 1-0 in 2011. As a Premier League side, they haven't won their final league game in a calendar year since 1992 against Middlesbrough (D8 L3 since).
- Norwich have drawn their final league game in four of the last five calendar years (L1), with their last such victory coming in 2015 against Aston Villa.
- Norwich have won just one of their last 27 Premier League games in London, drawing six and losing 20. However, that victory did come at Brentford this season, with the Canaries last winning multiple top-flight games in the capital in a single season in 2011-12 (vs QPR and Tottenham).
- Crystal Palace have lost just one of their last nine Premier League home games against promoted sides (W5 D3), going down 1-0 against Sheffield United in February 2020. The Eagles have conceded just two goals in this run, keeping seven clean sheets in the process.
- Norwich have failed to score in 12 different Premier League games this season, and have netted just eight goals in their 18 games so far. In English top-flight history, only Leicester City in 1977-78 (7) have scored fewer goals after 18 matches in a single campaign.
- After drawing 0-0 with Brentford in their first home Premier League game this season, Crystal Palace have scored in each of their last eight at Selhurst Park. It's their longest ever scoring streak in Premier League home games, with the Eagles last scoring in more consecutively in the top-flight in October 1990 (12).
- Over their last two Premier League campaigns (2019-20 and 2021-22), Norwich have scored just 10 goals in 27 away games, with the Canaries failing to score on 19 different occasions on the road in that time.
- Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Crystal Palace have a 32.3% win rate in the Premier League when Wilfried Zaha plays, compared to just 22.2% without the Ivorian. In fact, Palace have only won three of their last 24 Premier League matches that Zaha hasn't played (D3 L18).
