View from the Opposition: Nuno's assessment of Palace's strengths

Match previews

2 hours ago

Crystal Palace are back in Premier League action on Monday evening (20:00 BST), taking on West Ham United – and manager Nuno Espírito Santo for a second time in SE25 this season – at Selhurst Park.

Factfile

Manager: Nuno Espírito Santo
League Position: 17th
Ground: London Stadium
Founded: 1895

In their manager's words...

In his pre-match press conference, West Ham manager Nuno said his side are only focusing on their own performances, as they sit just a point above Tottenham Hotspur and the Premier League relegation zone.

The Hammers' boss has guided his team to five wins in their 11 league matches since mid-January – including a 4-0 win at home to Wolves last time out – to spring something of a mini-revival, although with six decisive matches ahead of them, the battle against relegation is far from complete.

"This week has been good," Nuno stated. "We’re working hard, the atmosphere is good and we’re focused and getting ready for Monday.

"I don’t think there is a risk of complacency. It’s positive after a good performance. It helps in terms of preparation and we’ll make sure we’re focused on what we have to do.

"Our preparation doesn’t change. We have only to focus on ourselves. We cannot control what happens at the other stadiums so I don’t see a big difference in that.

"It’s much better [to be outside the relegation zone] when you see you made a big effort to improve the situation, but nothing has changed really, as we still have six games to go and a lot of work to do.

"The big challenge that we have ahead of us is to sustain our level of performance, which is very hard. This is the big challenge, to see if we can go not just in parts of our games, but for the whole 90 minutes.

"Against Wolves the first-half was not so good then there was much improvement, and in other games we have started very well, so there is always to find a balance.

"We have a big challenge ahead of us."

Quote Icons

We are aware of the difficulties we are going to face
—Nuno Espírito Santo

Nuno also said of Oliver Glasner's side: "We watched the Crystal Palace game [against Fiorentina] on Thursday and it’s always a good moment to analyse and to see.

"We know Palace well and they’re a very good team and very hard to beat. They have an idea with Oliver Glasner for some time that has brought a lot of success for them.

"We are aware of the difficulties we are going to face and we know they will be ready to play us on Monday night.

"They are a very good team with a shape and idea and threats from all over the place. They are really established and it brought them a lot of success last season and they continue to perform well. They have individual players who are very talented.

"That’s credit to them and credit to Oliver to keep them tight and together. You can see by their performances that they’re a very good team."

West Ham Team News

Nuno confirmed in his press conference that he will have a fully-fit squad to choose from at Selhurst Park.

That means captain Jarrod Bowen, who is third in the Premier League assists charts (with eight) – six of those having come in West Ham's last seven matches – is likely to offer much of their creative threat.

Their Season So Far...

The Hammers won’t remember 2025/26 with a great deal of fondness. For much of it, a return to the Championship for the first time since the 2011/12 season has looked somewhat likely.

A recent uplift in form, particularly at home, has given them a good chance of survival with six games remaining.

The campaign was always likely to involve a battle against relegation after a disastrous start. A 3-0 away win at Nottingham Forest was the outlier in their first three months of the season, as they picked up just four points from their opening nine games.

A defeat to Palace at home in the reverse fixture of tonight’s game was the last match in charge for Graham Potter, who was replaced by Nuno. Despite an initial slow start, Nuno put some life into the Hammers’ season with back-to-back home wins against Newcastle and Burnley.

But a subsequent run of 10 league games without a win plunged the Hammers firmly into the relegation mire.

Match Action: West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace

West Ham have arguably been the most improved side in the league since the start of 2026. A late loss to fellow relegation rivals Nottingham Forest in early January proved to be something of a watershed moment.

Crysencio Summerville found form at the right time, scoring in back-to-back wins against Tottenham and Sunderland to kickstart the revival. After beating Burnley, they then became the first team to deny ex-Hammer Michael Carrick a win in his interim spell as Manchester United manager, with Tomas Soucek scoring in a 1-1 draw at the London Stadium.

In recent weeks defender Konstantinos Mavropanos has become an unlikely source of goals. After netting against Manchester City in a 1-1 draw a few weeks back, he was at the double in a 4-0 thumping of Wolves which took the Hammers out of the relegation zone for the first time since matchday four.

If they can start picking up points away from home as freely as they recently have done at the London Stadium, survival should be within their grasp.

The Boss: Nuno Espirito Santo

A rocky start for the Hammers for Nuno – with just two wins from his first 16 Premier League games in charge after replacing Graham Potter in late September – has paved way to a more profitable formula for the Portuguese manager.

After a spell in Saudi Arabia followed bruising exits from Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur, Nuno returned to England with Nottingham Forest midway through 2023/24.

He had a tall task taking over from Steve Cooper, who was a firm favourite amongst the Forest fans, but kept them in the top-flight fairly comfortably before an outstanding campaign last term saw them finish seventh and reach the FA Cup semi-finals. He departed earlier this season – not long after his team dug out a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park – before joining the Irons.

Nuno’s teams are consistently well-drilled, prioritising a compact defensive shape to limit space and maximise their chances of keeping clean sheets. With numerous flair players still at his disposal, West Ham should be an intriguing side to watch in their remaining games fighting to retain to-flight status.

Stat Attack

Pre-match stats provided by Opta.

Crystal Palace have won five of their last seven Premier League games against West Ham (D1 L1), and are looking to win three consecutive league games against the Hammers for the first time.
West Ham have won three of their last five Premier League away games against Crystal Palace (L2), scoring at least twice in all five of those matches.
Crystal Palace have picked up 13 points in their last seven Premier League games (W4 D1 L2), having gone nine winless beforehand (D3 L6).
West Ham are winless in their last five Monday games in the Premier League (D2 L3), having won 10 of their previous 12 beforehand. Crystal Palace, meanwhile, have won just three of their last 25 Monday games in the competition (D10 L12).
Crystal Palace have won their last two Premier League matches when going 1-0 down, beating Spurs 3-1 in March and Newcastle 2-1 in April. They had only won two of their previous 28 matches when conceding first beforehand (D9 L17).
Four of West Ham’s last seven Premier League goals have come via corners, with three of those scored by Konstantinos Mavropanos. The Greek central defender had only scored one goal in his first 81 appearances for Arsenal and the Hammers before this run of three in three.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s two goals against Newcastle took him to 48 Premier League goals for Crystal Palace, with Wilfried Zaha (68) the only previous Palace player to score 50. The brace took him to 37 goals in 75 games under Oliver Glasner, the outright most by an Eagles player under one manager in the competition – Zaha scored 35 in 134 games under Roy Hodgson.

Match Details

Crystal Palace v West Ham United

Monday, 20th April
20:00 BST
Selhurst Park
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+

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