Crystal Palace Match Preview

After their home defeat by Fulham last weekend, West Ham United head to Selhurst Park to play a second London derby in the space of a week this afternoon, when they take on Crystal Palace.

The Hammers suffered the disappointment of being knocked out of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night, following a 3-1 aggregate defeat to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen and will want to get back on track in the top-flight as they look to bring European football to Stratford for a fourth straight season.

The last time these two sides met, the Eagles were under the stewardship of Roy Hodgson, however, following the resignation of the former Fulham and Liverpool boss back on February 19, former FFV Eintract Frankfurt Head-Coach Oliver Glasner was swiftly confirmed as his replacement.

While It would be fair to say that the Austrian hasn’t had the best of times since moving to South London. Having said that though, he did achieve one of the results of the season a week ago when he guided his team to a remarkable win against then Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield.

The Irons need to be wary of the challenge that their opponents can pose today, as coming into this game off the back of that result will mean that the home side will be full of confidence to go and try to build on it.

The hosts will also be the fresher of the two sides as they have had a full six days to prepare.

This is a fixture that has in the past tended to favour the away side but the Hammers haven’t claimed victory against this afternoon’s opposition since a 3-2 victory here back on New Year’s Day 2022. Moyes usually has a good record on this ground so hopefully he can engineer another result for the East Londoners this time around.

West Ham are looking for an eighth away win of the campaign after they came from behind to claim all three points in a 2-1 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers fifteen days ago.

The Irons’ boss does have the suspended Emmerson Palmieri and Lucas Paquetá available again, while the Scotsman also revealed in his pre-match news conference on Friday that Jarrod Bowen, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kalvin Phillips and Nayef Aguerd will all face late fitness tests.

There was better news on the fitness of goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, as the Frenchman may be back in contention to replace Łukasz Fabiański.

The match has an unusual kick-off time for a Sunday, as it has been set for 3pm. The referee is Graham Scott.