Crystal Palace V Everton
Saturday 10th August 2019 – 15:00 Kick-Off
English Premier League
Pick: Everton WIN
Odds: 6/4
Bookmaker: BetVictor
 |
1 | X | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39/20 | 9/4 | 7/5 |
* (All betting odds displayed were correct as of 8th August 2019 at 23:40)
Preview: Crystal Palace welcome Everton to Selhurst Park bidding to break a wretched habit that has seen them lose their opening fixture at home in each of the past six Premier League seasons. However, last season’s corresponding meeting did produce a stalemate, with the pair playing out a goalless draw. Will there be any separating the sides this time around?
English Premier League Betting with 22Bet
Crystal Palace Preview – Turbulent summer to spell another slow start?
The club may have ended the 2018/19 season on a high when closing out the campaign with three victories in their final four fixtures, but the summer has been fairly underwhelming at the time of writing. One of their brightest prospects was allowed to depart. Their talismanic forward is desperate to do the same. And as for incoming transfers, the less said about those the better perhaps.
Furthermore, manager Roy Hodgson is likely to still be without several key individuals ahead of this season opener, with the strongest centre-back pairing at the club, James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho, still carrying knocks. The team coped admirably without both for a large spell of last season, in fairness to them. Gary Cahill has been recruited from Chelsea to help plug the gaps but at 33, the former England international is hardly an inspiring addition.
Last season, Palace secured a predictable mid-table finish. Their form at Selhurst Park, however, was disappointing (W5 D5 L9, GF19 GA23) – only relegated Cardiff and Huddersfield finished with a poorer record on home soil. Meanwhile, only Huddersfield, a team that finished rooted to the foot of the league, netted fewer goals at home than Palace’s 19. With their best forward wanting out, that insipid offensive output could deteriorate even further.
Wilfried Zaha remains a Palace player, for now at least, but his determination to seek a new challenge elsewhere must make him doubtful to feature on the opening weekend. Which is a monumental negative if that does become a reality, as it is common knowledge that Palace often struggle whenever the Ivorian is unavailable.
Everton Preview – Toffees to begin where they left off last season?
Much of the spotlight towards the end of the last campaign focused on the race for the title, but one of the biggest success stories towards the latter stages was undoubtedly the marked improvement from Everton. Their form in the final couple months was exceptional, to such an extent that fans are eagerly anticipating the start of the new season more so than any other in recent memory – especially after a productive summer in the transfer market.
The end of the 2018/19 league campaign came to a premature end for Everton’s liking, with the team well and truly discovering its groove to finish with only one defeat in their final eight matches (W5 D2 L1), a run comprising of eye-catching victories over Arsenal (1-0), Chelsea (2-0) and Manchester United (4-0) as well as a 2-2 draw at Tottenham on the final day.
The Toffees suddenly became an incredibly compact and resolute team to beat under Marco Silva, illustrated by the fact Everton kept eight clean sheets in their final eleven games. For a team that leaked goals in the first half of the season, it was a remarkable turnaround – one possibly scuppered by the loss of two pivotal defensive figures in defender Kurt Zouma and holding-midfielder Idrissa Gueye during the summer.
To counteract these departures, Silva has tried to invigorate his squad with several fresh faces. The most exciting of which is 19-year-old Moise Kean, signed from Juventus for a huge fee. The one aspect that was lacking last season was a killer instinct in the striking department and Kean’s arrival could go some way to solving what was a significant issue last term.
Crystal Palace V Everton Key Facts:
- Crystal Palace finished third from bottom when focusing solely on results earned at home in 2018/19 (W5 D5 L9).
- Everton ended last season losing one of their final eight matches (W5 D2 L1).
- On the seven previous occasions Crystal Palace have hosted Everton in the Premier League, The Eagles have never won (W0 D4 L3).
Betting Summary
Palace were an unreliable proposition at home in the last campaign, winning only five times (W5 D5 L9) and scoring fewer goals in front of their own supporters (19) than every other team except rock-bottom Huddersfield. The summer also seen them fail to bolster their attacking options sufficiently, while the most influential forward at the club – Wilfried Zaha – has spent much of the summer doing his utmost to engineer a move elsewhere.
Everton’s form towards the end of last season was better than anybody bar the top two teams in the division; just one loss in their final eight games was all the more impressive considering they faced Arsenal (W1-0), Chelsea (W2-0), Man Utd (W4-0) and Tottenham (2-2) during that spell, keeping plenty of clean sheets in the process.
Just one team scored with less frequency at home than Crystal Palace last season. Everton, meanwhile, finished 2018/19 solid as a rock defensively and although they do continue to blow more cold than hot in attack, netting only four goals in their seven pre-season friendlies, some exciting additions in that department should perk them up. The visitors are the selection here, to condemn their blunt hosts to another opening day home defeat.
