6-point game at Selhurst Park! At the start of the second half of the current Premier League season, it comes to a duel between 2 clubs with the same points. Crystal Palace, 11th in the table, welcome FC Fulham, the best promoted team from 9th place, at home. The Eagles want to make a strong start in front of their home crowd and make the leap into the top half of the table. The Cottagers have a goal difference of 1, while they have played one game more. A win for the Eagles would consequently allow the Vieira eleven to stay in contention for the European starting places, which is what they need to achieve.
Crystal Palace vs. FC Fulham: The starting position
- Form Palace: 2 wins and 3 defeats from the last 5 games
- Form Fulham: 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats from the last 5 matches
- Favourites: According to the bookmakers, Crystal Palace are the clear favourites.
In the direct comparison, the home side have 20% more squad value, while at the same time they have a strong record against the Cottagers. The Whites have not won a match against the Eagles in 5 games, while the latter have won 3. Both teams were able to present themselves in a strong shape before the World Cup break, which is why it will certainly be an exciting exchange of blows. However, due to their experience and home advantage, the bookmakers see the Eagles as clear favourites.
Crystal Palace – catching up with Europe
Patrick Vieira’s team had a strong first half of the season and achieved their goals in the middle of the table. All doors are now open for the Eagles in the second half of the season, as the Glaziers could catch up with Europe with a win against their league neighbours. However, this is considered a distant dream, which is why the upcoming games must be won.
At the end of the first half of the season, the Glaziers had 2 important victories against Southampton FC (1:0) and West Ham United (1:2). Vieira’s side narrowly lost the decisive match against promoted Nottingham Forest 1-0, which meant that the home side missed out on a move up to 7th place in the table. Now they have to live up to their role as favourites against Fulham and Bournemouth, as the big duels against Tottenham, Chelsea, Newcastle, ManU and Brighton will follow. The next games could hardly be more difficult, which is why the Eagles are particularly motivated to live up to their own role as favourites.
Fulham FC – End negative streak and stay in touch with Europe
For the Cottagers, the return to the highest English division could hardly have gone better, which is more than reflected by their 9th place in the table. Now it is important to maintain the strong form of the first half of the season and to win the upcoming games against Parlace and Southampton. Before the Qatar break, there were 2 narrow 2-1 defeats against the two Manchester clubs. Nevertheless, the Whites were able to remain unbeaten for 4 games in a row and collect 8 points. The strong 3:0 success against Aston Villa and the narrow 2:3 victory in Leeds stood out.
With Crystal Palace, a strong opponent now awaits, but at the end of the day, the Cottagers can manage the victory and catch up with the English top teams in the table. Fulham FC will put their hopes first and foremost in Wilfried Zaha, who with 6 Premier League goals is by far the Whites’ most successful scorer.
Betting tip & prediction: Crystal Palace – Fulham FC (26.12.2022)
Our expert tip for Crystal Palace vs. FC Fulham is a draw. Both clubs are currently on an equal footing, which is why we expect an even exchange of blows. In the course of this, we bet on a draw with the winner of the match. STS offers odds of 13/5 on the winner of the match.
Betting tip: “High-scoring 6-point game between Eagles and Cottagers ends in a draw”.
Both teams will be looking to get off to a strong start and thus be on the offensive. For this reason, we expect both clubs to score at least 1 goal, which is why we are betting on both to score with odds of 4/5. Furthermore, we assume that both teams will even score several times. Consequently, we bet at STS with odds of 9/4 on over 3.5 goals.