Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Team news, predictions


Our match pack for Saturday's Premier League clash between Crystal Palace and Leicester City includes team news, statistics, manager quotes, odds & our prediction.

The game kicks off at 1500 BST at Selhurst Park and is part of the latest round of the £250,000 Super 6 game!

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Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Team news


Captain Wes Morgan is out for Leicester's trip to Crystal Palace as boss Craig Shakespeare tries to save him for the Champions League.

The defender has missed the last five games with a back injury but the Foxes need him available for Tuesday's quarter final second leg with Atletico Madrid, although he is still rated at just 50-50.

Shakespeare is likely to rest some players ahead of their European clash and Jamie Vardy, Christian Fuchs and Yohan Benalouane could all be kept fresh for Tuesday while Nampalys Mendy has an ankle injury.

Crystal Palace will again have Patrick van Aanholt available for selection after he recovered from an ankle injury.

The left-back will vie for selection with Jeffrey Schlupp, but manager Sam Allardyce is otherwise expected to make few changes to his in-form team.

Allardyce remains without the injured Scott Dann, Pape Souare, James Tomkins, Fraizer Campbell and Connor Wickham, but Loic Remy is closer to a first-team return.

Crystal Palace:  Hennessey, Mandanda, Speroni, Ward, Kelly, Delaney, Sakho, Fryers, McArthur, Milivojevic, Ledley, Cabaye, Puncheon, Townsend, Kaikai, Zaha, Sako, Schlupp, Van Aanholt, Lee, C Benteke. 

Leicester (from): Schmeichel, Hamer, Zieler, Simpson, Huth, Benalouane, Wasilewski, Fuchs, Chilwell, King, Amartey, Drinkwater, Ndidi, Gray, Mahrez, Albrighton, Kapustka, Musa, Okazaki, Vardy, Ulloa, Slimani.

Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Our prediction 


Our David John writes... If you were doing some sort of long-term forecast in August, you would have not have got much of a price on Palace being odds-on chances to beat Leicester. But that is the current state of affairs as Sam Allardyce once again seems to have saved a side which looked destined for the second tier at the start of the year.   

Five wins out of six is impressive in any language and although perhaps at their most dominant against Arsenal on Monday night, that did come against a rival who do not need much of a nudge at the moment to topple over in spectacular fashion.   

The confidence gained will not do the Eagles any harm though and it is back to business against a side they could overtake in the table with three points that would just about guarantee another year of top-flight football.   

The Foxes have staged a famous rally of their own of late under Craig Shakespeare even if they were chasing shadows for a good part of last week’s 4-2 defeat at Everton, and seemed to iron out a few wrinkles as expected to limit Atletico Madrid to just a dubious penalty and a host of long-range efforts midweek.

The bottom line is though they have lost back-to-back games as opposition managers start to get a better handle on what Shakespeare’s approach is all about and you can be sure Allardyce will not be found wanting when it comes to doing his homework to press home any advantage.    

You can argue Leicester having to recover from their midweek jaunt to Spain has been factored into Palace’s price but they were winners at West Ham immediately after knocking Sevilla out of the Champions League so there should be no real excuses on that front.   

It is a worry that Wes Morgan is still not available due to an ongoing back issue but there remains enough menace on the counter-attack from the visitors to catch out the hosts and two sides who are finally looking upwards as the season draws to a close could well share the spoils.     

Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-1 Leicester City 

Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Opta facts


Crystal Palace have alternated between victory and defeat in their four home Premier League games against Leicester, keeping a clean sheet in each win and failing to score in each defeat. 

After winning just one of their first six Premier League games against Crystal Palace (D1 L4), Leicester have since won the last three in a row. 

Indeed, this is the first time Leicester have won three in a row against the Eagles in all competitions since March 1925 – they’ve never won four consecutively against them. 

Sam Allardyce has won his last two home games against reigning Premier League champions as a manager, beating Manchester City with West Ham in 2014-15 and beating Chelsea with Sunderland in 2015-16. 

Crystal Palace have won five of their last six Premier League matches (L1). Before this run, they’d won five games in 26 attempts in the Premier League.  

Both Crystal Palace and Leicester have won 15 of a possible 18 points in their last six Premier League games – the only side to have won more points in their last six PL matches are Spurs (18). 

The Eagles have won their last three league games at Selhurst Park – they haven’t won four top-flight home games in a row since December 1990. Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend had yet to be born when this occurred. 

Wilfried Zaha has assisted nine goals for Crystal Palace in the Premier League this season, equalling the record by an Eagles’ player in a single PL campaign (Wayne Routledge, nine in 2004-05). 

Leicester  have won four and lost just two of their eight Premier League away games in London since the start of last season (W4 D2 L2) 

Islam Slimani has scored 35 league goals since the start of 2015-16, 16 of which have been from headers (46%). In the same period, Crystal Palace have scored just one more headed goal in the league (17). 

Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Manager quotes


Sam Allardyce (Crystal Palace)

On Mamadou Sakho's loan deal: "There isn't a clause (to make the deal permanent) because his deal was done in the Bournemouth corridor by me after we had won 2-0, and Steve (Parish, Palace's chairman) finishing the negotiation over the phone to try and secure Mama.

"At the moment that has paid off for us. What happens in the summer can only happen in the summer and can only be talked about, for me, when we are safe.

"We are not safe and can't talk about Mama Sakho being a permanent deal here because we're still not safe and our position in the Premier League is not safe."

On Wilfried Zaha: "Staying here, since he's come back (from Manchester United) and how well he's done - his development, his more consistent performances - we would all love him to be at Crystal Palace for a long period of time.

"That can really only be determined now in the summer, whether he signs a new contract or not."

Craig Shakespeare (Leicester City)

On Wes Morgan: "We'll only put him in if he's ready. The conversation will be with Wes and our medical department and we'll give him every opportunity between now and then but if he's not ready we won't take a gamble.

"He's trained yesterday, not all with the squad, but I have said before it will be 50-50 for Atletico Madrid. He won't feature against Palace.

"I haven't seen the players this morning but I need to assess them all. We only had a light training session on Thursday for the players who played and a full session for those who didn't."

On Sam Allardyce: "Having worked with Sam in a very short space of time his record there is for all to see. He's never been relegated from the Premier League. Having seen him work at close quarters, how diligent he is on the opposition it doesn't surprise me."

Crystal Palace v Leicester City: Sky Bet odds


Crystal Palace are Sky Bet’s 5/6 favourites for the victory with Leicester 100/30 outsiders while the draw is priced at 5/2. Sam Allardyce’s men were pushed out to 20/1 to face relegation following their Monday Night Football victory, while Leicester are considered in even less danger at 150/1 to go down. Christian Benteke heads the first goalscorer betting at 9/2 with Jamie Vardy considered the visitors’ main threat at 13/2 to net first, while the strike duo are 7/1 to both find the net. Palace v Leicester is included in this weekend’s Super 6 line-up, with £250,000 up for grabs again following jackpot wins in the last two rounds. Enter your predictions for free here. 

Click for Sky Bet's Crystal Palace v Leicester City odds!

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