Sports Blog 14/12/2016: Premier League Preview – Crystal Palace vs Manchester United, Wednesday 14th December 2016

Can Crystal Palace put a bit more distance between them and the relegation zone with a win against Manchester United, at 8pm on BT Sport 1?

There are very slight signs of a turnaround at Palace this December, not that it is hard to mount an improvement on the 6 consecutive league losses seen across October and November. The month kicked off with a confident 3-0 home win against Southampton, their first since September 24th, while last weekend saw Alan Pardew’s side snatch a point at Hull thanks to an 89th minute goal from Fraizer Campbell.



That slight uptick in form has seen Palace climb to 15th place, still only 3 points above Swansea and Hull in 18th and 19th place respectively. Most of Palace’s problems have been defensive, as up front they have the highest tally of every side that isn’t in the top 4 – a beating the likes of a Harry Kane-led Tottenham and Man United. As one should expect, given the price they paid for him, Christian Benteke is their top scorer with 8 goals, just one less than he managed in an entire season at Liverpool. The Belgian heads into Wednesday’s game at a Super Mega PGM of 19-23.

As for United, Mourinho will be hoping that Sunday’s narrow victory over Spurs will be enough to spark a pre-Christmas revival for a side that has lacked a certain fire in the last couple of weeks. Part of United’s recent improvement has come down to the influence of Henrikh Mkhitaryan who, after finally fighting his way back into the team, managed to score twice in 2 games. Frustratingly the Armenian went and got himself injured against Tottenham, ruling him out until Boxing Day.

That means the pressure remains largely on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s shoulders, the Big Swede at a Super Mega PGM of 46-54 after scoring 13 goals in all competitions. No-one has really come close to Zlatan on the goal-scoring front, though on 4 goals apiece Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, at spreads of 22-27 and 24-29 respectively, will be looking for another chance to prove themselves at Selhurst Park.

Despite their better record upfront Palace look too rocky at the back to challenge the visitors, with Spreadex offering a Manchester United/Crystal Palace (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.75-0.95 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.5-2.7.