Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United: Betting Odds & Prediction
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Newcastle United make the long trip to South London to take on Crystal Palace on Wednesday night in the Premier League.
The two teams have both found some good form recently so something will have to give. Newcastle won 4-0 at St. James’ Park when the sides met earlier this year, and have a good recent record in the fixture, going unbeaten against Palace in their past six meetings. Kick-off at Selhurst Park will be at 8pm.
Recent Form
Crystal Palace
Palace thumped West Ham 5-2 to make it back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season, and are playing with the freedom of a side that know they will be in the division next year. That win moved them up to 14th and eleven points clear of the drop, so their safety is all but assured.
After a strong defensive rearguard in their win at Anfield, the Eagles built on that with a superb attacking display against West Ham, scoring four goals in a rampant first-half performance. Their attacking trio of Michael Olise, Ebere Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta all scored, and have shown that when on form they are remarkably difficult to stop. Eze has now scored in each of the last two games, while Mateta’s brace at the weekend makes it five goals in his past four home games.
The Eagles have only the 17th best home record in the Premier League, picking up an average of 1.19 points per game (P16 W5 D4 L7). However, since new manager Oliver Glasner took charge they have lost just one of their four home games, and that was to Manchester City. Crystal Palace’s home games have averaged 3.25 goals per game, and both teams have scored in 69% of matches.
Newcastle United
Eddie Howe’s side have found form at the right time to reignite their push for Europe, winning three of their last four games to move up to sixth in the table with 50 points, above Manchester United on goal difference. They comfortably won 4-0 at home to Tottenham last time out, but the Magpies have struggled on the road all season.
Newcastle have the 15th best away record in the league, collecting just 0.93 points per game (P15 W4 D2 L9), but have actually won three of their last five away games, having won just once on the road prior to that. They were outplayed for large parts of their 1-0 win at Fulham but found a way to win, securing just their second away clean sheet of the season in the process. That was welcome as they have conceded an average of 2.13 goals per game on their travels this season, with Newcastle’s away games seeing a remarkable 3.87 total goals per game.
The Magpies’ win against Spurs marked the first time that the attacking trio of Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes have started together this season, a sign of the unrelenting injury problems that Newcastle have had to cope with this year. Eddie Howe will be hoping they can stay fit until the end of the season and build on the partnerships that tormented the Tottenham backline all afternoon. Isak in particular has been on fire lately, scoring seven goals in his past six games.
Prediction
This is a tough one to call. Over the course of the season, Palace have struggled at home and Newcastle away, but both sides have turned this around recently and are in a good moment. The Magpies have more to play for, but the Eagles appear liberated by the change of manager and mid-table security.
There will almost certainly be goals, given the form of the respective sides’ attacking units, and in Eze and Gordon there are two exciting players who have strong cases to be included in the England squad for the summer. It may come down to the fact that Newcastle have not played for ten days, while Palace will only get a rest of two days.
OddsNow are backing a refreshed Newcastle to continue their good record against Palace and pick up another win here, while putting an end to Palace’s recent good form.