Crystal Palace vs West Ham Prediction: Hammers to break their curse

The opening day for both these teams was a day to forget. Crystal Palace suffered an away defeat to Brentford FC, while West Ham United Suffered a home defeat to Aston Villa. Both teams lost 2-1 and looking back there is a lot to reflect on. 

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Team News

Crystal Palace have already lost the services of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich for 53 Million Euros and it looks like that will not be their only loss this transfer window with rumours circling about Joachim Andersen and Marc Guehi to liver pool or Newcastle United. If both players were to depart, this would leave Palace with a giant hole in their defence. Reports say that Joachim Andersen has reported to Fulham for a medical and an agreement has been reached with Crystal Palace. He will probably be a Fulham player by the time this match kicks off

West Ham are still in the market for players, they are linked to midfielder Mohamadou Kane of Paris FC, However, the reports state that he would be loaned back to Paris FC for the remainder of this season.

Crystal Palace Predicted line-up (3-4-2-1): Henderson, Guehi, Riad, Richards, Mitchell, Hughes, Wharton, Munoz, Eze, Kamada, Philippe Mateta.

Both Teams to Score - Yes 67/100

In the intro, I briefly touched on how identical the opening weekend was for these two teams. It is more evident when you look at the events that transpired in both games. Both teams conceded a goal in the first and second half of their respective ties. They both failed to score a goal in open play with West Ham scoring a penalty and Crystal Palace benefiting from an own goal. Both teams dominated possession with West Ham enjoying 52% of the ball and Crystal Palace enjoying 54% of the ball in their match against Brentford. New signings on both sides failed to make an impact with Ismaila Sarr  and Niclas Fullkrug coming in off the bench and failing to find the back of the net.

Last weekend aside, the head to head statistics point to an advantage for Crystal Palace who have not lost to West Ham in their last five meetings. This is despite Crystal Palace failing to keep a clean sheet against West Ham in their last 20 meetings. West Ham themselves have also struggled for clean sheets in this fixture with their last 15 matches all ending with them having conceded a goal to Crystal Palace.

While taking into consideration the fact that they may have failed to find the back of the net in the first match day of the season. The lack of clean sheets in this match suggest that this is going to be a match with goals in it. Another statistic that back this up is that the last 10 meetings between these two sides ended with both team scoring with West Ham scoring the opening goal in their last 5 out of 7 matches.

3 Way - Draw 13/5

West Ham have made some big investments in the transfer window with the club securing the signatures of Max Kilman, Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Fullkrug and Luis Guilherme from Plameiras. Not to mention Wan-Bissaka joining from Manchester United and a few free transfers coming through the door. Julian Lopetegui has big plans for westahm united and it is clear to see with the players who have come through the doors since he has joined the hammers in since July of 2024. He will still these players to adjust to his playing style in addition adapting to play with each other.

This is refelcted in their preseason results, with West Ham failing to win their last three matches of preseason in regular time. They lost to Wolves and Crystal Palace 3-1 and beat Celta on Penalties 7-8. They only managed to win one match during preseason in regular time. This team needs time to gel and I don't see it happening against Crystal Palace.

Palace on the other hand have had a good preseason with three wins and two draws. Their opening day loss came as a surprise because their had not lost to Brentford in 6 matches. This plus the fact that they had not registered a loss in their last 12 matches. They were odds on favourites to win against Brentford.

Having met West Ham in preseason and beating them by 3-1, it is hard to believe that West Ham would have closed the gap between them and Crystal Palace. Especially when considering that the last time they met in the league fans were treated to a 5-2 thriller. However, I think the two teams cancel each other out and this match ends in a Draw.

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