Crystal Palace vs Brighton & Hove Albion 17/12/19

17 December 2019

Crystal Palace will try to maintain a good momentum when they take on Brighton & Hove Albion at Selhurst Park in the Premier League (PL) mid-table clash.

After three straight PL defeats that saw them concede precisely two goals each, the hosts have now gone three games unbeaten (W2, D1), keeping a clean sheet in all of those matches. Still, the Eagles are dealing with massive problems in the opposition’s third, having scored one goal or less in six of their last eight PL outings. In fact, only dead-last Watford have netted fewer goals than Palace (14) so far, with Roy Hodgson’s men scoring an average of 0.87 goals per PL fixture. Moreover, only six of those goals have come at home (42%), with Palace drawing a blank in two of their last four PL home matches.

Meanwhile, the visitors come into this meeting after avoiding defeat in two of their previous league outings (W1, D1), with both of them featuring three or more goals and seeing both teams score. Playing away from home has been a problem for the Seagulls, who have lost four straight PL road trips before clinching a 2-1 win over Arsenal at the beginning of the month. Brighton’s struggling on the road is a consequence of a sloppy defending, as Graham Potter’s men conceded over 1.5 match goals in five of eight PL away games, keeping a clean sheet twice in the remaining two. The traveling side can be encouraged by the fact Brighton won both of their top-flight H2Hs with Palace last season, even though they failed to keep a blank sheet in both of those clashes.