Crystal Palace vs West Ham preview, team news, match tickets, and prediction

With four games left to be played in the 2023/24 Premier League season, Crystal Palace who have been in terrible form in recent times, will welcome fellow Londoners West Ham United to the Selhurst Park for this crucial encounter. The two teams have had turbulent campaigns yet and the focus is to finish the season on a high.

The home side in this fixture - the Eagles - have not had it all easy in the Premier League this campaign and that has led to the dismissal of Roy Hodgson in February. Austrian Oliver Gasner, who won the Europa League with Frankfurt, was appointed in the veteran’s place and it remains to be seen whether he can lead them to Premier League safety.

In a bid to compete this season, Crystal Palace went into the transfer market and got the likes of Matheus França from Brazilian club side Flamengo, English goalkeeper Dean Henderson from Premier League giants Manchester United, Rob Holding from Arsenal, and Jefferson Lerma from Bournemouth on a free transfer. In return, the Eagles allowed the likes of Luka Milivojevic, Jack Butland, Wilfred Zaha, and Vicente Guaita to leave for Shabab Al-Ahli, Rangers, Galatasaray, and Celta de Vigo respectively on free transfers.

Crystal Palace have found it difficult to grind out results this season, managing just six wins all season long as of the time of writing. Their recent form has been quite poor with the Eagles failing to win a single Premier League match from their last five, slumming to three defeats, one win, and one draw. The terrible run started on matchday 12 when Crystal Palace welcomed Everton to Selhurst Park in a five-goal thriller that saw the Eagles narrowly lose 3-2 before going ahead to suffer back-to-back defeats after Luton Town got the best of them in a keenly contested match. A 1-1 draw against West Ham United seemed to be some silver lining for the Eagles but further back-to-back home defeats have buried any hope of a resurgence. Now, they hope to pick themselves and finish the season on a strong note.

Meanwhile, West Ham United's performance in the Premier League this season has been relatively sub-par. The Hammers have managed to scrape out results here and there but have been unable to gather any real momentum. The Hammers have been hovering around mid-table for large parts of the season, as shown in their results recently.

During the summer, the Hammers sold Declan Rice to Arsenal. The Englishman left for Arsenal FC in a club-record transfer deal. Other notable exits include misfiring Gianluca Scamacca and Nikola Vlasic who joined Italian Serie A club sides Atalanta and Torino respectively, Arthur Masuaku who left for Turkish side Besiktas and Manuel Lanzini leaving for River Plate on a free transfer.

David Moyes and the side enjoyed some bit of success in the recruitment aspect as new arrivals like Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez from Ajax Amsterdam, English set-piece specialist James Ward-Prowse from championship side Southampton, and Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos from Bundesliga side VFB Stuttgart have all made a good start to life in London.

On the pitch, the Hammers struggled for consistency all through the campaign and were constantly beaten by huge margins away from home. Apart from the big wins over Arsenal, Brighton, and Chelsea, Moyes and his boys lost scandalously to the likes of Fulham and Everton when they should have done better.

Crystal Palace do have a decent team to worry the Hammers and this particular fixture has a lot to give as it is a derby clash at Selhurst Park.

Match tickets

The epic match at Selhurst Park in London kicks off on Saturday 20th April 2024, at 3 PM UK time.

The magnificent 25,486-capacity stadium is the place to be for this clash between two London teams.

Getting tickets for the Crystal Palace vs West Ham United tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels.

Team news

Line-ups

Palace have generally been poor this whole campaign and the fans have voiced their displeasure on several occasions. The Eagles have many key players out on the sidelines including Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, and Rob Holding as of the time of writing, who are dealing with various injuries. Meanwhile, Cheick Doucoure is ruled out for the remainder of the season with an Achilles injury.

Crystal Palace: Johnstone, Ward, Anderson, Guehi, Clyne, Hughes, Richards, Lerma, Ayew, Edouard, Eze.

David Moyes has enjoyed a relatively healthy squad with only Lucas Paqueta the major absentee due to his injury layoff and could be back before this particular contest. Stars Jarrod Bowen and Edson Alvarez have been pivotal to the performance of the team and they can go ahead to make a mark in this game. The Hammers got Kalvin Phillips in January and not much has been seen from him.

With that being said, Areola, who has been the number one this season, should start in goal, while Mavropanos continues to partner Zouma at the heart of the backline, and Ward-Prowse keeps his place in midfield. Winger Kudus has also been excellent on the wings.

West Ham United XI: Areola; Coufal, Mavropanos, Zouma, Emerson; Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Soucek; Bowen, Ings, Kudus.

Prediction

This game comes at a time the season is coming to an end with the objectives of the individual clubs nearly achieved. Nevertheless, it should be a game that should excite the neutrals while the hosts, Crystal Palace, try to improve their position on the log. The Hammers are quite inconsistent, so the performance they could produce is not guaranteed. A draw might just suffice here.

Crystal Palace 2-2 West Ham United