Palace v West Ham United

Selhurst Park, Saturday 5.30pm

Selhurst Park (Photo: Andy Roberts)

Story so far

The action and excitement of the Premier League is finally back after the turgid round of World Cup qualifiers.

Palace go into the London derby with West Ham in the Saturday tea-time game in decent form with just one defeat in the last seven matches in all competitions.

The hapless Hammers are third-bottom with only one league success from their seven fixtures and are leaking goals like the proverbial sieve. Wonder if they miss James Tomkins? It's no surprise they are out at 3/1 for the win with BetBright.

Belgian bruiser Christian Benteke is in a rich vein of form and I fancy him for the first scorer at 9/2 with bet365.

An interesting side bet is 22/1 there being a red card – there's been sendings off in the sides' last three fixtures.

Three of the last four match-ups have ended 3-1 and the last four meetings went over 3.5 goals. The Eagles just cannot keep a clean sheet but I fancy them to emerge victorious at that 3-1 scoreline, so I'm all over the 16/1 bet with bet365.

Team news

Crystal Palace are still without injured captain Scott Dann who has yet to recover from his hamstring problem.

Pape Soure (broken thigh bone) is still recovering from his horrific car crash and is out until the back end of the season. On-loan Chelsea striker Loic Remy (thigh) is still sidelined until November at least.

West Ham's Aaron Creswell should make a return for the Hammers, while Manuel Lanzini and Alvaro Arbeloa are also in contention. However, Gokhan Tore and Sam Byram and Arthur Masuaku are out.

Quotes

Slaven Bilic

"We have a great Stadium and need to win a few games to feel more at home there. We would rather play at home than away. I am not looking for excuses but we had many injuries. A lot of them are now coming back. You can get out of trouble very quickly but you need to start winning games.'

On James Tomkins: "I didn't want him to leave but I couldn't guarantee he would play every week. That is the reason he wanted to leave. He wanted to be guaranteed first-team football."

James Tomkins

"I have still only played two 90-minute games, so the fitness will come with that. The more I play, the better I'll get, and I'm just trying to show what I can do. And results are going well for us.

"We can get some injured players back and up the fitness levels behind us, get more training and now we will be looking ahead to playing my old club.

"It will be weird to play against them, but it's a game I'm looking forward to and a good one for us to come back in to after the break."

West Ham United - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
02/04/2016	League	West Ham United	2 - 2	Crystal Palace
17/10/2015	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 3	West Ham United
28/02/2015	League	West Ham United	1 - 3	Crystal Palace
23/08/2014	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 3	West Ham United
19/04/2014	League	West Ham United	0 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

West Ham United 2-2 Palace

Saturday April 02 2016

West Ham United: Adrian, Ogbonna, Reid, Cresswell, Antonio, Kouyate (s/o 67), Emenike (Carroll, 60), Lanzini, Noble (Obiang, 80), Payet, Sakho (Valencia, 69)

Subs not used: Moses, Song, Tomkins, Randolph

Goals: Lanzini (18), Payet (41)

Bookings: Reid, Noble

Sent off: Kouyate (67)

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Delaney, Dann, Souare, Jedinak, Puncheon, Bolasie, Ledley (Campbell, 71), Zaha (Gayle, 45), Sako

Subs not used: Mariappa, Lee, Mutch, McCarthy, Kelly

Goals: Delaney (15), Gayle (75)

Bookings: Ward, Sako

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