It’s the early kick off on Saturday (12:45 local time) and Crystal Palace can realistically go third in the table ahead of London rivals Arsenal and West Ham, at least for a few hours, with a win.
If you had offered that to a particularly partisan Crystal Palace fan at the start of the season, he would surely have gnawed your hand to the quick.
Because no one quite knew whether Alan Pardew could replicate, longer-term, the trajectory that Tony Pulis set a then troubled team on.
But this Crystal Palace is now well and truly consolidating its position in The Premier League and not just scraping through games but playing some really expansive football – it’s the cherry on the icing on a delicious cake, as far as the fans are concerned.
Palace do have one of the longer injury lists in The Premier League at present and, while none of Delany, Jedinak, Ward, Wickham, Appiah and Chamakh are likely to make the squad for this one, at least four of them should be back to resume playing after international fortnight, which begins after this round of fixtures.
This means that Pardew should continue with a similar XI which beat Watford on their own patch last time out. That team was:
Hennessey, Kelly, Dann, Hangeland, Souaré, Cabaye, Ledley, Puncheon, Sako, Bolasie, Gayle
Expect a similar side on Saturday with the only real question about whether Wilfried Zaha starts after what was widely regarded as a man of the match performance off the bench against Watford.
The stadium should be bouncing and we wouldn’t be at all surprised by another convincing win. It’s rather ironic that Crystal Palace’s new official sponsor is gaming company Mansion Group. Because they took something of a punt on Palace which is currently paying massive dividends, as the profile of the club grows with each passing week.
Long may it continue.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 2 – 1 West Brom
Scorers: Puncheon, Zaha
