Sunderland v Palace

Stadium of Light, Saturday 3.00pm

Scott Dann

Story so far

The Eagles make a return to the North East where they go up against David Moyes' struggling Sunderland outfit. The Mackems have gleaned just one draw from their first five league games of the season.

While Palace are riding high(ish) in eighth, Sunderland are joint-bottom along with Stoke, so Palace have a great chance to make it another three points...

But Palace have let us down so many times before and if you fancied betting against the Londoners, then Sunderland are 2/1 to win outright with both bet365 and Paddy Power.

Three of the last four and 10 of the last 14 head-to-heads went OVER 2.5 goals, so that looks like a correct call at 6/5 with Paddy Power.

Andros Towsend opened his Palace account last week and is 10/1 with Paddy Power to score the first goal at the Stadium of Light.

Team news

Crystal Palace skipper Scott Dann won't play against Sunderland after he sustaining a minor hamstring injury in Wednesday's cup loss at Southampton.

Fortunately for Alan Pardew's side, defender James Tomkins is fit again and will go in at the heart of the Eagles' defence.

Sunderland hotshot Jermain Defoe has overcome a calf strain and should start up top. Midfielder Seb Larsson, goalkeeper Vito Mannone and striker Fabio Borini are all still sidelined.

Sunderland (from): Pickford, Mika, Love, Manquillo, Djilobodji, O'Shea, Kone, Denayer, McNair, Van Aanholt, J. Robson, T. Robson, Cattermole, Kirchhoff, Rodwell, Gooch, Januzaj, Khazri, Pienaar, E. Robson, Defoe, Asoro, Watmore

Palace: (from) Mandanda, Hennessey, Speroni, Ward, Tomkins, Delaney, Kelly, Fryers, Flamini, Mutch, Lee, McArthur, Ledley, Cabaye, Puncheon, Zaha, Townsend, Sako, C Benteke, J Benteke, Wickham, Campbell.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"The cup games can give you that little boost. We had that last season in the FA Cup. I think Sunderland are a side trying to find that first league win, so there is extra pressure on them which they will feel on Saturday.

"It's a different competition to the EFL Cup and that could play a part. We're going there to win a game of professional football and we're going to do the best possible job we can with a team at the moment which looks in good form."

David Moyes

"We've felt much better since winning in midweek but we did a lot of good things in the Tottenham game. They're renowned for being strong boys here - they showed that last year - so I've never questioned their character."

Sunderland - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
01/03/2016	League	Sunderland	2 - 2	Crystal Palace
23/11/2015	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Sunderland
11/04/2015	League	Sunderland	1 - 4	Crystal Palace
03/11/2014	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 3	Sunderland
15/03/2014	League	Sunderland	0 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Sunderland 2-2 Palace

Tuesday March 01 2016

Sunderland: Mannone, van Aanholt, O'Shea (Kaboul, 28), Kone, Yedlin, Rodwell, N'Doye, M'Vila, Khazri, Kirchhoff ((Cattermole, 64, Borini, 80)), Defoe

Subs not used: Jones, Larsson, Pickford, Toivonen

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Kelly, Cabaye (Ledley, 73), Bolasie (Sako, 77), Zaha, Jedinak, Mutch, Wickham (Adebayor, 84)

Goals: Wickham (61, 67)

Subs not used: McCarthy, Mariappa, Lee, Gayle

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