HomeTeams - PLCrystal PalaceSwansea v Crystal Palace Preview| Team News, Key Men & Stats

Swansea v Crystal Palace Preview| Team News, Key Men & Stats

After their exploits against Liverpool last weekend, Crystal Palace travel to top- half Swansea City in hope of picking up their away win of the season.

Swansea have had a tough November with matches against Everton, Arsenal and Manchester City and the collection of 4 points in these fixtures will please Garry Monk. The month will be seen as a disappointed if they do not pick up 3 points at home to Crystal Palace. A December that is favourable for Swansea will mean no added pressure on this match though and their good season could continue into the New Year starting with this weekend.

swavspal

Palace’s win over Liverpool helped keep them out of the relegation and open a small 2 point gap; it always helped to slightly relieve the pressure on Neil Warnock after a 5 match winless run that included 4 defeats. Heading into December it is important to stay clear of the relegation area for confidence reasons and the level of commitment alongside high pressing showed against Liverpool will need to on show again.

Team News

Wayne Routledge and Ashley Richards are long-term absentees for Swansea, plus Fernandez continues to miss out with a calf injury.

This weekend is likely to be too soon for Delaney, while Mariappa and Doyle are out for the foreseeable future.

Key Players

Gylfi Sigurdsson

The Icelandic international has enjoyed a successful return to Swansea this season and the Welsh club reaped the rewards of Sigurdsson’s qualities.

Knowing when to time a through ball as well as being able to feed the pass through the smallest margins is one of Sigurdsson’s main strengths. It has seen the playmaker assist 7 goals in 12 matches and create 26 chances during that time. Having an excellent technique was also on show against Arsenal in Swansea’s last home match with a perfectly weighted free kick helped the Swans on the way to victory.

Yannick Bolasie

The Palace winger has impressed on a number of times this season, but Sunday’s match against Liverpool was his best performance yet.

Bolasie was a constant danger on the counter-attack and had Liverpool’s full backs frightened on multiple occasions with direct, unpredictable running. Creating 3 chances and threatening the opposition defence with 5 crosses, one of those assisted Palace’s second goal and turned the match on its head. The only problem is Bolasie’s consistency with the winger often drifting in and out of games – an example of this is also 25% of the chances he has created this season came last weekend.

Interesting Statistics

The Liberty Stadium has been a fortress since they were promoted to the Premier League and that has continued this season with 4 victories and a draw in 6 home league matches.

Wilfred Bony has scored 11 goals in his last 20 Premier League matches at home.

Swansea have 5 clean sheets this season compared Palace’s 2.

Mile Jedinak’s free-kick last weekend was his 4th goal of the campaign beating his season best – 3 in their promotion season in 2012/13 – in England after only 11 matches.

Betting Tip

Crystal Palace have conceded 2 or more goals in 5 of their 6 away matches this season and the creativity Sigurdsson provides, noted above in the Key Players section, means the Icelandic playmaker to get an assist is great value at 2.65.

Assists

Prediction

Swansea’s good home form and Palace’s struggles away from Selhurst Park means there is only one likely outcome – a home win for the Welsh club.

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