Palace v Sunderland

Selhurst Park, Wednesday 8.00pm

Iain Dowie

Team news

Dowie is hoping to make Mark Hudson's loan from Fulham permanent and currently is negotiating a £1m transfer.

Mikele Leigertwood will replace him in the heart of the defence should the deal not be completed in time.

Sunderland's George McCartney is a doubt after only recently recovering from a sprained ankle.

Stephen Wright (thigh) and Paul Thirlwell (calf) are out, but Jason McAteer returns from suspension.

Sunderland - league stats

Full league table

Sunderland - current form

Full form table

Our home record v Sunderland

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
13/09/2003	League	Sunderland	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
17/01/2001	FA Cup	Crystal Palace	2 - 4	Sunderland
06/01/2001	FA Cup	Sunderland	0 - 0	Crystal Palace
19/12/2000	League Cup	Crystal Palace	2 - 1	Sunderland
05/04/1999	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Sunderland

All time results

One to watch

Julio Arca

Sunderland have many extremely good players so it has been by far the hardest decision to make this season about which one of these great talents is the ONE to watch.

Theres Kevin Kyle, fatastic forward, quick sharp and accurate and scores a lot of very important goals for the black cats.

Theres Marcus Stewart, top goal scorer for them this season and all round fantastic striker.

Mart Poom, the goalkeeper who has been keeping the legend that is Thomas Myhre out of the first team, he has had a fantastic season and is one of the best if not the best goalkeeper outside the premiership.

Jason McAteer, fantastic scouse midfielder who may be getting on a bit but can still hold his own and create chances at any level.

Then Darren Byfield, has been on fire since joining from Rotherham earlier int he season. Big strong centre forward who can outmuscle a lot of defences in this division.

However, the man i have chosen is a man that joined the Black Cats from Argentina in the summer of 2000 in a £3.5 million deal. He was labelled a wonderboy when he joined at the age of 19. After a bright start to his sunderland career he has failed really to exceed the expectation of him, possibly because they were too high, but as time has wore on, this player has become very dangerous for any team that faces him.

This season Julio Arca has been the best defender in the First Division in my opinion.

He is a strong left sided player that is playing at left back at the moment but can play in left midfield.

He has been consistently excellent in the sunderland team this season and is one of the main reasons why Sundeland are where they are - on the brink of a return to the premiership.

If we win then we will have the best chance in years of a playoff spot, if we dont then it could banish us to another season in this league, our fate could be determined as to whether we can cope with the Argentinian Wonder that is Julio Arca.

Last meeting

Sunderland 2-1 Palace

Saturday September 13 2003

Sunderland: Poom, Arca, McCartney, Breen, Williams (Oster, 45), Butler (Proctor, 81), Thirlwell, Thornton, McAteer (Healy, 34), Stewart, Kyle

Subs not used: Clark, Ingham

Bookings: Kyle, McCartney, Stewart

Goals: Kyle 46, Stewart 90 (pen)

Palace: Berthelin, Smith (Borrowdale, 75), Derry, Mullins, Fleming, Butterfield, Hughes, Routledge (Riihilahti, 89), Symons (Watson, 60), Shipperley, Johnson

Subs not used: Cronin, Williams

Bookings: Hughes, Mullins

Goal: Johnson 90

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