Off the back of defeating Fiorentina in the UEFA Conference League quarter-finals in aggregate, Palace will be looking to win three consecutive league matches against West Ham for the very first time, in what will be the 50th league meeting of the two clubs.
But London rivals West Ham have experienced something of a revival of late, winning five of their last 11 Premier League games to turn their fortunes around and escape the relegation zone – form which Richards recognised ahead of the game.
The defender told News Shopper: "They’re a team fighting for their survival but they've also cut a hot streak as of late, so hopefully we can cool it down a little bit.
“Regardless, we want to continue to climb up the table and we want to be very competitive in both competitions that we're in, so we're not taking our foot off of the gas at all and hopefully we get a win on Monday night.
“We don't expect an easy game. We just need to go out there and put in a performance like [against Fiorentina], hopefully with fewer goals conceded!
"We’re going to go out there for 90 minutes plus on Monday night and hopefully come out with the win.”
