Crystal Palace will be looking to bounce back from their defeat at home to Manchester City as they travel to White Hart Lane to come up against a Tottenham Hotspur side who’ve started this season in a disappointing fashion.
The Eagles’ impressive start to this season sees them sit comfortably in 6th place in the Premier League, and it has been one of the most suprising scenarios since the start of the campaign.
Given just how strong Alan Pardew’s side is, there’s no reason as to why Crystal Palace can’t be fighting for a European spot this season. Teams now know not to underestimate the South Londoners following an impressive victory over Chelsea and simply narrow defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City respectively.
However, whilst the Eagles have been soaring, Tottenham have struggled to gain any momentum since the season begun.
Spurs’ performances have been far from excellent. To suggest consitency is finally something that can be spoken about, Pochettino’s side have recently recorded back to back clean sheets in the league.
Now, the London derby at the Lane is steadily poised with both sets of players hopeing to come out at the end with an important three points.
Team News:
Christian Eriksen is still suffering with a knee injury and it’s unlikely that the Danish international will be risked. It’s clear that Spurs are missing the creativity from their number 10. Alongside Eriksen, both Ryan Mason and Mousa Dembele are set to miss the game. Nabil Bentaleb is out for up to four weeks with an ankle problem.
Heung-Min Son is expected to make his domestic home debut, with defender Eric Dier expected to be fit enough to feature.
For the Eagles, Damien Delaney is struggling with a pelvic injury, but could still start. Conor Wickham missed the Manchester City defeat but is in contention to start after recovering from his calf injury. Joel Ward is out of action until October, alongside former Arsenal striker Maroune Chamakh.
Managers:
Ahead of the game, here’s what both managers have had to say:
Alan Pardew:
We have 25 good names on that sheet and a couple of good names who haven’t made it that are decent as well. Paddy McCarthy and Zeki Fryers are not even on the sheet. We’re strong and we’re looking forward to the League Cup. That’s a game we want to win. The squad gets three good games next week. Perhaps 10 games gives you a better feel of the division.
Mauricio Pochettino:
The Premier League is the most difficult competition in the world. This is true. And this affects your performance in the Europa League or the Champions League. Can the English teams get back to the top in Europe? I don’t know. You have Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain. There is a lot more money [than there was]. They can also play with reserve teams in their domestic competitions and still win. For teams like us, like Manchester United, it is not easy to play in the league after a European game. It’s more difficult.
