Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Team news predictions odds

The game kicks off at 2000 BST at Selhurst Park, live on Sky Sports 1.

Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Team news

Crystal Palace must do without defender James Tomkins for Wednesday's Premier League clash with Tottenham.

The former West Ham centre-back could miss the rest of the season with a leg injury. Palace boss Sam Allardyce will decide at the last minute whether to rotate his squad following Sunday's 2-1 win at Liverpool.

 Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has no fresh injury concerns, but Danny Rose is not yet ready to return after almost three months out with a knee injury, meaning Ben Davies is likely to start at left-back.

Erik Lamela and Harry Winks are both out with hip and ankle injuries respectively while goalkeeper Michel Vorm is struggling with a knee problem.

Teams

Crystal Palace (from): Hennessey, Speroni, Ward, Kelly, Schlupp, Van Aanholt, Sakho, Delaney, Milivojevic, Cabaye, Flamini, McArthur, Zaha, Puncheon, Townsend, Benteke, Campbell, Chung-Yong, Ledley, Sako, Kaikai.

Tottenham (from): Lloris, Lopez, Whiteman, Davies, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Wimmer, Walker, Trippier, Wanyama, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Sissoko, Onomah, Son, Janssen, Kane. 

Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Manager quotes

Sam Allardyce (Crystal Palace)

On the future of Wilfried Zaha: "As far as I know, Wilfried's contract has a considerable amount of time to come. The summer will bring whatever it brings, whether that's negotiating a new contract with us or some outrageous bid from somewhere else.

"From a personal point of view, he needs to stay and play every week and be a key man while Crystal Palace keep getting better and better. He's getting closer and closer to the final product, so I think he can find himself even more so if he stays here, but obviously I'm not in control of that."

On the injury to defender James Tomkins: "It's a bad injury for James. (There's) nothing broken, which we're very pleased about considering the volatile nature of the tackle, (but) it's quite fortunate there's not more serious damage.

"But quite whether he'll be fit by the end of the season is a doubt at this moment in time, which is not great for us with Scott Dann being a long-term injury as well.

"I think he (Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic) was lucky to get yellow. He wasn't in control, hit just above the ankle on his standing leg, completely missed the ball. So I think he's fortunate to get a yellow."

On his side's recent resurgence being one of the best runs of his managerial career: "We needed that to get ourselves out of trouble, but we're still not mathematically out of trouble. It shows great fight and desire from the players to get ourselves out of that predicament. They've grasped it in the end superbly well and done an outstanding job.

"It has to be one of the best run of results in the long career I've had as a manager in the Premier League, to accumulate victories at Chelsea and Liverpool, and of course Arsenal at home, the comeback against Leicester and before that the edgy wins against Watford and Middlesbrough.

"We've done a fantastic job, but I just hope the players now don't come off the gas. There can be a natural tendency to say 'we've done it'. We took advantage of West Brom on that basis, and that can happen. I just hope the game's big enough on Wednesday for the lads not to do that."

On whether he will make wholesale changes from Sunday's impressive win at Liverpool: "The players' recoveries is a big question to selection. Do we let them go again? And if we do, are they capable of going again? And if not, should we change the side? That's the question we've been asking ourselves (on Monday), again (on Tuesday) and probably again (on Wednesday morning).

"If they don't have that energy in the locker then we're going to find it extremely hard to compete with a Tottenham side in fine form at the moment."

Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham)

On the title race: "We care a lot about the club and now we must focus on the present to try to help the team and club to be there if Chelsea drop points. It will be special if in the last season at White Hart Lane we win the Premier League.

"In the next three to four weeks we must give our best, big efforts for all of us, for the players to try to focus, don't think about holidays, rumours, what will happen next season. I want the last three to four weeks the big effort from everyone to achieve. Then we can congratulate everyone and try next season."

On whether the club have a winning mentality: "I have no doubt. It's important to have memory. The first season we arrived we got 35 players and we started to rebuild the team during the season. Not to arrive, sign 10 players, put out another 12.

"We start to compete in the last two seasons. Last season we finished third, the best place in the Premier League for Tottenham, now we are second and fighting with the big sides with a completely different project.

"The mentality is fantastic - to win always. But when you compete with Chelsea, Man United, Man City, Liverpool - come on. The players deserve full credit and (you should) remove that idea because it's not true. They are winners. Another thing is to win titles, but they are winners."

Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Our prediction

Andy Schooler writes...

April 25, 2016: Spurs’ title hopes are effectively ended by a 1-1 draw at home to West Brom.

A year and a day later and it could be a similar tale just a matter of miles away when they head to Selhurst Park to take on a red-hot Crystal Palace side.

With this preview being written before Chelsea’s game with Southampton on Tuesday, Spurs trail the Blues by four points with six games to play having reduced the deficit from 10 over the past few weeks.

However, now they must not only face a Palace team who have won six and drawn one of their last eight games but also deal with a mentally crushing defeat to Chelsea in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final.

With Chelsea having wobbled and also fielding a team missing three regulars in Hazard, Costa and Cahill, all the talk was about Spurs heading into that one.

But they blew their chance. They didn’t play particularly badly but defensively were certainly below the high standards they have set for much of this season. 

They conceded two silly fouls which led to goals from the ensuing set-plays and also left Hazard unmarked on the edge of their own box for another. For all the post-match comments of having no chance of stopping Nemanja Matic’s wonderful strike for the fourth goal, they were no doubt the architects of their own downfall.

How Spurs  respond will obviously be key and it could be they bounce back impressively but, given the prices, I won’t be backing them to find out.

Palace simply have to be the call here at close to 5/1 to win the game.

It’s not as if their six recent wins have come against shoddy opposition with Chelsea, Arsenal and, most recently, Liverpool among their victims.

In all three of those games they enjoyed less than 28 per cent of possession but that just goes to show what a fine job Sam Allardyce has done in shoring up the Eagles’ defence.

Mamadou Sakho has attracted the most plaudits and the on-loan Liverpool defender will return for this one having been forced to miss Sunday’s return to Anfield.

Holding midfielder Luka Milivojevic has not had as many headlines but has also played a key role since his January arrival, while further forward Yohan Cabaye and Christian Benteke have both returned to the form we’ve seen in the past.

Fair play to the much-maligned Allardyce. His ‘guarantee’ against relegation looks set to remain very much in place – it’s hard to see 38 points not being enough to stay up (Palace also have the best goal difference in the bottom half which is effectively an extra point).

He has also called things perfectly. Upon his arrival he warned it would take time but vowed results would come in March and April. And that they have. In some style.

The main worry with backing Palace is that having hit the 38-point mark, there’s a bit of a let-up in their level of performance. However, I’m sure Allardyce will have done his best to ensure that doesn’t happen, hammering home the fact that Palace are still far from mathematically safe.

In any case, I’m hardly suggesting you lump the house on Palace but I do feel there’s good value in their price which is at least worth a nibble.

During their recent hot streak, they’ve won three and drawn one on home soil, the three victories coming without conceding.

With the likes of Harry Kane and Dele Alli in their ranks, Spurs will doubtless test their new-found defensive resolve but with a vociferous, intense crowd behind them Palace have to be worth a bet at the price.

Prediction: Crystal Palace 2-1 Spurs

Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Opta facts

o Crystal Palace have lost each of their last three league games against Tottenham; they haven’t lost four successive games since their first five encounters with Spurs in the top-flight (Aug 1969 – Sept 1971).

o After failing to win 11 successive top-flight London derbies (D2 L9), Crystal Palace have won their last two - they’ve never won three successive London derbies in the Premier League.

o Tottenham haven’t won an away top-flight London derby since their last visit to Selhurst Park in January 2016, failing to win each of the last four trips in London (D2 L2).

o Harry Kane has scored 18 goals in 24 London derbies in the Premier League – the Spurs striker has the best goals per game ratio in history in such derbies (0.75 goals per game) of players to play in five or more.

o After failing to score in his first three Premier League appearances in 2016-17, Harry Kane has scored 20 goals in 21 matches in the competition for Spurs and converted 29% of his total shots.

o Mauricio Pochettino has seen his Tottenham side win seven successive league games in a run starting two months before the date of this match (February 26th). This is his best-ever winning run as a manager in league competition.

o During this seven-game winning streak for Spurs in the Premier League, Dele Alli has had a hand in eight goals (five goals, three assists).

o After losing his first three home matches in charge, Sam Allardyce is unbeaten in his last four at Selhurst Park (W3 D1), with the Eagles keeping a clean sheet in each of those victories.

o Tottenham have won consecutive away Premier League games for the third time this season, but haven’t managed to win three in a row since February 2016.

o Christian Eriksen has provided 11 assists and scored a further four goals in his last 11 games for Tottenham in all competitions.

Crystal Palace v Tottenham: Sky Bet odds

Crystal Palace are 4/1 with Sky Bet to claim another major scalp, with Tottenham 8/13 while the draw is priced at 3/1. Mauricio Pochettino’s men headed into the midweek action with a 5/1 chance of catching Chelsea and securing the title, while they’re just 1/12 in betting without the Blues. Harry Kane heads the first goalscorer market at 100/30 and is 5/6 to net anytime, while Christian Benteke is 10/1 for another brace.

Click for Sky Bet's Crystal Palace v Tottenham odds!