Palace Preview: How Eagles can equal 30-year record against Villa

Match previews

1 Oct 2021

Crystal Palace will look to continue their unbeaten run and winning record against Aston Villa on Saturday, 27th November (15:00 GMT).

Previous meetings

The two teams played out a classic when they met at Selhurst Park last season. Palace came back from behind twice to secure a memorable 3-2 victory thanks to Tyrick Mitchell’s first goal in red and blue.

The victory last season was Palace’s third successive win over Villa at Selhurst Park since 2015, and they will look to extend that record on Saturday afternoon.

Preview

Last weekend’s chaotic 3-3 draw against Burnley means the Eagles come into this match on a seven-game unbeaten run.

Additionally, Palace are unbeaten in their first six home games of the season. The last time Palace went seven home matches without defeat in the top-flight was during the 1990/91 season, when then-manager Steve Coppell secured a third-place finish and won the Zenith Data Systems Cup.

The rich vein of form the south Londoners find themselves in coincides with a hot streak for Belgium international Christian Benteke, with five goals in his last seven games for club and country. Loanee Conor Gallagher has also impressed recently, with two goals and two assists in his last three domestic outings.

Aston Villa come into this game having recently appointed former England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard as manager. The ex-midfielder made an instant impact during his first game in charge at Villa Park, ending a five-game losing streak after registering a 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.

Tactical overview

Since the start of the season, Patrick Vieira has implemented his 4-3-3 system at Palace with a heavy emphasis on playing out the back. Centre-backs Joachim Andersen and Marc Guéhi have been instrumental in implementing this style of play, having completed over 800 passes each.

Further up the pitch, the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Odsonne Edouard and Michael Olise have continued to demonstrate a clinical impact in the final third with eight goals between them.

Villa under Dean Smith typically implemented a 4-2-3-1 system for the majority of his tenure at Villa Park, though he switched to a 3-5-2 at the start of this season. With Gerrard now at the reins, Villa may look to implement his 4-3-3 system which saw great success at Rangers.

Fantasy briefing

Gallagher’s (£6.0m) great form has had Fantasy Premier League managers clamouring to get him into their teams. The recently capped England international is the third-highest scoring midfielder in the game, behind Liverpool duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, and is now selected by almost 25% of teams.

Centre-back duo Guéhi and Andersen have displayed great value for their £4.5m price tags, as their form indicators show that they are performing at levels expected of £6.7m and £7.0m defenders respectively.

Team news

Eberechi Eze returned to the fold last time out against Burnley, featuring on the bench for the first time this season after a lengthy spell out due to an Achilles injury. Fellow midfielder James McArthur missed the trip to Burnley last weekend and remains out due to a hamstring problem.

Aston Villa will be without winger Trézéguet and defensive midfielder Douglas Luiz as they are ruled out with a knee and muscle injury respectively.

Match details

Saturday, 27th November
15:00 GMT
Selhurst Park

How to follow

On Palace TV+

Live audio commentary of Palace v Aston Villa will be available on Palace TV+, a subscription service which gives subscribers live access to selected Academy match broadcasts, live audio commentary of all league and cup first-team games, and much more.

Find out more by clicking here.

Social media

You can check out our Instagram story for all of the pre-match build-up and our official Twitter page is bringing you up-to-the-minute match updates, eye-catching photos and more.

Our club website, cpfc.co.uk, is the place to go for team news on the dot, an instant report and all the post-match votes.

The official app

The official Palace app’s match centre is the place to be for everything you need during the Aston Villa clash. With live stats and alerts, a running match commentary feed and lineups the moment they’re released as well as an instant match report and post-match reaction from Palace TV+, there’s no need to leave the app to follow the Eagles’ efforts.

Download our app for free here!

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Match previews