Palace v Everton

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

The Holmesdale Online

Story so far

An incredible fightback from Crystal Palace saw them recover from going 2-0 down to Burnley at Turf Moor, with a brace from Dwight Gayle and another from Jason Puncheon saw them return to London with all three points.

Forward Dwight Gayle has certainly responded to the gauntlet thrown down to him and Palace’s other creative players by Alan Pardew following his return to Selhurst Park. Gayle has now registered five goals in the league this season from just nine attempts on goal to complement his overall 77.7% shot accuracy rate. Gayle is 27/10 with 888sport.com to score at any time this weekend.

Defender Martin Kelly has been quietly going about his business this season but has rapidly developed into an integral part of Palace’s defensive unit. He has the best tackle success rate of any Eagles player to have attempted more than 40 challenges, winning 86.7% of his 75 attempted tackles this season according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Alan Pardew will be looking forward to welcoming back Yannick Bolasie from the African Cup on Nations, with the winger’s devastating pace and ability set to be a crucial asset in the second half of the season. Despite currently being away representing his country, Bolasie still leads the Palace squad for both dribbles and assists, with 53 and five respectively.

A missed penalty from Kevin Mirallas proved a defining point in Everton’s last league game against West Brom as they saw the game finish 0-0. Leighton Baines continues to be a real problem for the opposition at both ends of the pitch this season. Palace will have to be mindful when attacking his channel that he doesn’t not dispossess them and then immediately launch a counter-attack, given his excellent 75% tackle success rate and squad-leading eight assists. Baines in an industry-best 7/1 with 888sport.com to score at any time this weekend.

On the other flank, Palace will have to be equally aware of Seamus Coleman’s attacking threat given his seemingly endless ability to reach top speed. He ranks first amongst all Barclays Premier League defenders for total sprints with 1,220 to his name so far this term. This means he is averaging one sprint every 1.4 minutes he is on the pitch according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

If Palace are to score this weekend they will have to get through Phil Jagielka first, a difficult task at the best of times but even more so when the Toffee’s captain has been in such consistent form this season. He’s made more defensive contributions (block, clearances, tackles won, interceptions) than any other Everton player this campaign, amassing a highly impressive total of 275.

Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars at fantasy.premierleague.com or with FIFA Ultimate Team for FIFA 14.

Team news

Palace boss Alan Pardew might hand new midfielder Jordon Mutch his Eagles debut against the Toffees. However, fellow new signing Shola Ameobi is not match fit.

Everton midfielders James McCarthy, Kevin Mirallas and Darron Gibson and defender Sylvain Distin are all set to come back after recovering from injury.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

“He [Jordan Mutch] is a young player with potential. It hasn’t quite worked out for him at QPR so we’ve given him an opportunity to come and play here.

“He’s got talent, he can score goals and hopefully in our environment he will have more success than he did at QPR. You need to score goals from all areas of the pitch in the Premier League. It’s an area where we can improve.”

Roberto Martinez

"We are facing a team that are full confidence. They have scored six goals away from home in the last two games. Obviously they are in a very good moment, if not the best moment of their season.

"We are well aware how difficult it is to play this side, they have been a bit of a bogey side for us in the last three games.

"They bring a lot of flair they have got a lot of pace and they defend extremely well. They are very well organised.

"Obviously with the new manager coming in they are adapting to a different way of playing but while that transition has been happening they are full of confidence and they are a very dangerous team to play against."

Everton - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
21/09/2014	League	Everton	2 - 3	Crystal Palace
16/04/2014	League	Everton	2 - 3	Crystal Palace
09/11/2013	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Everton
10/04/2005	League	Everton	4 - 0	Crystal Palace
21/08/2004	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 3	Everton

All time results

Last meeting

Everton 2-3 Palace

Sunday September 21 2014

Everton: Howard, Baines, Distin (Gibson, 84), Jagielka, Stones (Mirallas, 64), Barry, McCarthy, Osman, Atsu (Naismith, 64), Lukaku, Eto'o

Subs not used: Alcaraz, Robles, Besic, McGeady

Goals: Lukaku (9), Baines (pen 83)

Bookings: Eto'o, Naismith

Palace: Speroni, Dann, Ward, Kelly, Delaney, Ledley, Puncheon, McArthur (Guedioura, 84), Bolasie (Fryers, 87), Jedinak, Campbell (Doyle, 86)

Subs not used: Gayle, Mariappa, Hennessey, Zaha

Goals: Jedinak (pen 30), Campbell (54), Bolasie (69)

Bookings: Speroni, Puncheon

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