GW 23: Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace

This weekend, Crystal Palace come to Anfield as they face Liverpool on Saturday. Liverpool have bounced back after their loss against City and will be looking to continue their impressive league campaign after a win last week, while Palace are currently struggling in the Premier League as they sit in 14th place. Coming into the game it looks to be a bit of a foregone conclusion as Liverpool have been superb this season, especially at home, and Crystal Palace don’t look to be anywhere near the level of the sides in the top 10. Also, Liverpool won the reverse fixture in London 2-0 as they walked away with the match quite comfortably. Expected goals had the match at 2.82 to 0.37 as Liverpool were always very secure in the match especially after Wan-Bissaka was sent off in the 76th minute. Crystal Palace will drastically need to step up their attacking performance in this match as they’ve been poor in front of goal throughout the entire season while Liverpool’s defence has been rock solid.

Liverpool have been enduring their best ever Premier League season so far and they look to be in a prime position to win their first ever Premier League title. This has largely been up to their supreme defensive record as they have only conceded 10 after 22 matches and they have kept an astonishing 13 clean sheets up to this point. After losing for the first time this season 2 weeks ago, they bounced back last week against Brighton to win and they look like they haven’t dropped off too badly in form. At home, they have been brilliant over the last couple of seasons as they are undefeated in their last 31 home matches in the Premier League as they haven’t lost once at home this season. In fact, Liverpool have won every time but once when at home this season with their only draw coming against City early on. Their last match was a 1-0 win over Brighton in which the match never looked in doubt. Although they only won by 1 goal, this was largely due to their conservative nature in the match as they never focused on attacking throughout the 90 minutes. Liverpool dominated in terms of possession with 71% and didn’t let Brighton have a single shot on target as expected goals predicted the match at 2.22 to 0.37 in their favour. At the moment, Brighton are 1 place ahead of Crystal Palace so Liverpool might expect a similar sort of match this weekend

Crystal Palace are actually a very good defensive side as they have the 7th best defence in the league at the moment only conceding 28 goals. This means that Mo Salah will be crucial for Liverpool as he has been throughout the entirety of this and last season. His attacking numbers have been superb this season and his transition to playing as a striker has helped him after he was struggling in front of goal early on in the campaign. This season he is currently taking 3.3 shots per game and making 2 dribbles per game but even more impressively, he is making 2.1 key passes as he has transformed into a much better creative player. He is the joint top goalscorer in the Premier League at the moment with 14 goals and he also has 7 assists which is only 4 less than his total from last season. As mentioned earlier, Palace are solid defensively and Salah’s great eye for goal and new found creative ability will be necessary for Liverpool. Fabinho could be another player to watch out for as he has massively impressed since finding his way into the first team. With Liverpool’s lack of central-defenders due to injury, Fabinho had to play that position last week despite usually playing as a defensive midfielder. He impressed in his defensive role though and might be called upon to play their again if their other defenders don’t come back to full fitness. He is currently making 2.8 tackles and interceptions per match which is quite good considering Liverpool like to keep possession. He is also making 52 passes per match and has been key in ball progression and possession play for Liverpool. Whatever role he plays, he should be important on both defence and offence like he has been so far for Liverpool.

Crystal Palace have a talented squad but have failed to make the most of it this season as they have fallen into a zone which is hard to get out of where they aren’t as good as any of the top 10 to 12 sides but where they are nowhere near as bad as some of the bottom 5 teams. Their main problem at the beginning of this season has been their lack of a main striker and they’ve really struggled for goals only scoring 20 so far. Hodgson has tried all sorts of combinations up front but with Benteke in really poor form and with Sorloth not making an impact before his recent loan move, they’ve had a lot of trouble trying to find a goal scoring formula. As mentioned before, they have a very strong defensive record and they have many capable players at the back. Last weekend they lost 2-1 to Watford after they surrendered a 1-0 lead late on in the match. The match was very tense but Watford edged the match even with less possession although they took more shots than the home side. In the end Watford scored from their only 2 shots on target scoring in the 67th and 74th minute to narrowly beat Palace.

Of course, Zaha is likely to be the main man in this match as he has been by far the best Palace player this season. The main problem for Zaha has been that he has had to play up front for the majority of the season due to Palace’s lack of a main goalscorer which has been hurting him as he usually likes to contribute from a wide area. His numbers have still been impressive though and although he has only managed 4 goal contributions this season he is taking 2.3 shots per game as well as making 1.4 key passes and 3 dribbles. Zaha has been quite unlucky up to this point but he’s the type of player who can produce a moment of magic at any given moment and this ability will be much needed against such a strong defence. Van Aanholt will be another important player for Palace as he has been good when both defending and going forwards. He is making 2.4 tackles and interceptions per match which is very good for a full-back and alongside this, he is taking 1.4 shots, making 0.9 key passes and 0.7 dribbles on average per match. Against a team who are strong in all areas of the pitch, his all round contribution will be needed in order for Palace to get anything out of the game.

Liverpool have a few injury problems affecting their senior squad and centre-back has been a huge problem for them over the last few gameweeks. Lovren and Gomez are both injured at the moment and with Matip recently returning he could be shaky and might not at his best. We've also seen Liverpool play Fabinho at centre-back in recent weeks but both Matip and Fabinho have been inconsistent at times this season. Without Gomez, Liverpool don’t lose too much as they their back ups are still high quality players, however, they lose his composure and any error made could turn a game on its head like we’ve seen time and time again throughout the Premier League’s history. Crystal Palace are suffering from practically zero injuries, as second choice goalkeeper, Vicente Guaita, could possibly miss out. This lack of injuries will a act as a massive advantage to them as they’ll need every player fully fit for such a tough match.

With Liverpool top of the league by 4 points and after winning their last match, they’ll come into this game full of confidence whereas Crystal Palace won’t fully believe in themselves especially away from home. Liverpool are incredible at home and will be looking to keep their superb run at Anfield up as they’ll be looking for a 32nd consecutive game unbeaten at their home stadium. When at home they’ve scored 3 or more in all of their last 3 matches and even a defence of Palace’s quality will have a lot of trouble keeping them out. At the end of the day, I believe it will be quite a straightforward game for the Reds and I believe they’ll win 2-0 without too much trouble.