Crystal Palace vs Everton

Selhurst Park is the venue as resurgent Crystal Palace and out-of-sorts Everton go head-to-head in a high-stakes Premier League showdown.

Crystal Palace’s decision to bring Roy Hodgson out of retirement to help them navigate Premier League survival faced some skepticism. Yet, three wins out of three league encounters against fellow relegation rivals have all but sealed Palace’s top-flight status for next season as they start this round nine points clear of the drop zone. More importantly, Hodgson has unleashed Palace’s attacking potential during his brief tenure, with the ‘Eagles’ netting eight goals in his three matches in charge, which is as many as they had in their 16 Premier League outings beforehand. Keen to win a fourth straight league game for the first time since June 2020, the home side will be looking to defy an abysmal 16-match H2H streak against Everton in the Premier League (W1, D7, L8).

Meanwhile, Everton’s imperious H2H form is perhaps the only comfort the visiting team can get ahead of this trip after an underwhelming four-match winless league run (D2, L2) left them on the periphery of the relegation zone, level on points with 18t-placed Nottingham Forest. Indeed, after racking up two wins in his first three Premier League games in charge of the ‘Toffees’ (L1), manager Sean Dyche has overseen just one triumph in the last eight (D3, L4). Back-to-back two-goal margin defeats in the run-up to this trip are unlikely to inspire much confidence as the visitors bid to arrest a woeful 11-match winless Premier League streak away from home (D4, L7). Moreover, Everton’s porous defense has conceded at least twice in all six away league matches in 2023 (D2, L4), casting further doubt on their hopes of upsetting the odds in London.