Crystal Palace take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at Selhurst Park on Saturday, September 3. It will be the eleventh Premier League meeting between the two, and the Crystal Palace predicted lineup suggests Roy Hodgson may tinker with his team for the first time this season.
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Crystal Palace Predicted Lineup As They Host Wolves
How Crystal Palace Have Lined-Up This Season
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has stuck to the same starting team for all three Premier League matches.
England goalkeeper Sam Johnstone has started all three games between the sticks, as he doesn’t have much competition for his place. Dean Henderson will now provide tough competition following his arrival from Manchester United.
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Eberechi Eze has been the main point of creativity for Palace this season – while their solid defensive unit of Joachim Anderson and March Guehi have been supported brilliantly by the defensive midfield pair of Jefferson Lerma and Cheick Doucoure.
Hodgson did change personnel for the EFL cup game against Plymouth Argyle in their last game – with Jean-Philippe Mateta netting a hat-trick.
Crystal Palace Recent Form And Tactics
Palace have set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation for their three league matches.
This has allowed a strong defensive midfield pair to protect the back four while the two full-backs have been given permission to get forward as much as possible. Two wide attacking midfielders have looked to get crosses into the lone centre forward, and Eze has been allowed to roam freely in an attacking midfield role.
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The Eagles have had a solid, although unremarkable, start to the campaign playing this system. They look solid at the back, conceding just two goals so far. One of those even came from the penalty spot.
It is in attack where they need to be better. Odsonne Edouard, as the lone striker, has struggled slightly, with a fox in the box goal against Sheffield United during their opening game a highlight of his season so far. They cause quite a few problems with their attacking prowess but have lacked an end product.
Crystal Palace Injuries To Consider
Three players are known to be missing from the Palace team through injury.
Michael Olise has a thigh injury, which will keep him out until at least the end of September. Midfielder Will Hughes is recovering well from a knee injury, but this game comes a little too soon for his return, while new signing Matheus Franca is yet to appear for the South-East London club due to a back injury.
Crystal Palace Predicted Lineup
With that Mateta hat-trick in their last game, it would be a surprise if Hodgson did not give him a starting place. This would probably be in place of Jeffrey Schlupp, with Edouard moving out to the left.
This leaves the Crystal Palace predicted lineup looking like this:
GK: Sam Johnstone
RB: Joel Ward
LB: Tyrick Mitchell
CB: Joachim Andersen
CB: Marc Guehi
DM: Jefferson Lerma
DM: Cheick Doucoure
AM: Eberechi Eze
RW: Jordan Ayew
LW: Odsonne Edouard
ST: Jean-Philippe Mateta
Current Odds: Crystal Palace vs Wolves
Palace are the favourites, according to Sky Bet, to pick up a victory over Wolves, with them priced at around 19/20. The away side are 3/1, while the draw is at 12/5.
Three of the last four meetings have ended with the winning side securing a 2-0 victory, and Palace to win by that scoreline is 15/2.
Image Credit: Rockybiggs on Wikimedia, CC BY SA 4.0
