Crystal Palace returned to the bottom of the Premier League at the weekend after being held to a 2-2 draw by Bournemouth. That extended their unbeaten league run to five games and they host a Watford side that have lost three of their last four Premier League away games. Crystal Palace fans thought their side were going to get a 3-2 home win over Bournemouth on Saturday when given a late penalty. Luka Milivojević had already scored one from the spot earlier in the game but it was Christian Benteke who took the vital penalty and missed from the spot.
Apparently, the other Palace players weren’t strong enough to get the ball off Benteke or Hodgson needs to shout louder at his players because that penalty miss could cost Palace dearly. If that had been scored they’d be 18th and only in the relegation zone on goal difference, rather than bottom and two points from safety.
After all their scoring problems earlier in the season, Palace have at least sorted out how to score at home. Their last five home games have seen them score twice, they’ll have to wait till the weekend to see if they can get rid of that statistic of not having scored a goal in any away league game this season.
It’s not just from the spot that Christian Benteke has been having problems. He’s still to score since returning from injury and that was his third missed penalty from his last five. It’s a good job that there are plenty of other players finding the net with their last six goals scored by different players.
Palace are a bit of a puzzle to be fair. They can’t score away but have managed two straight clean sheets on the road. At home they regularly score but haven’t kept a home clean sheet all season. With Watford no strangers to scoring goals on their travels, it’ll be a big surprise if Palace can finally play that elusive home game without conceding.
Following this game, they travel to Leicester City and Swansea City but then entertain Arsenal and Manchester City, so an imminent escape from the bottom three might not be on the cards but three points at home to Watford would be a big boost.
Watford ended the weekend in 9th place after suffering a 1-0 defeat at Burnley on Saturday. The sending off of Marvin Zeegelaar didn’t help them one bit and Watford now have just one point from their last three league games. That loss at the weekend was the first time they’d failed to score away from home and ended a run of five straight games in which they had found the back of the net.
Despite being 8th in the table, Watford lack consistency, mind you that’s something that could be written about most Premier League teams. They have only once won two league games in a row this season and with just seven points from their last eight league games, the optimism that was being shown after beating Arsenal in October is slowly fading away.
Conclusion
Crystal Palace will be disappointed at slipping to the bottom of the table but know there’s every chance they can get out of the bottom three, just don’t let Benteke take any more penalties. Watford are in shaky form at present but are more than capable of scoring goals on their travels. They will be without the suspended Marvin Zeegelaar and a bet on Palace to win with both teams scoring could be a winner.
The Key Stats
Last Five Premier League Results – Most recent first
Crystal Palace – DDDWD
Watford – LDLWW
Head to Head – Last Five League Meetings
18/03/17 – Crystal Palace 1 Watford 0
26/12/16 – Watford 1 Crystal Palace 1
13/02/16 – Crystal Palace 1 Watford 2
27/09/15 – Watford 0 Crystal Palace 1
27/05/13 – Crystal Palace 1 Watford 0
- Crystal Palace have only lost two of their last 14 league and cup games against Watford.
- Crystal Palace have scored twice in each of their last five home Premier League games.
- Both teams have scored in the last five Crystal Palace home games.
- Crystal Palace have conceded in their last eight home Premier League games and 11 of the last 12.
- Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their last five Premier League games but have drawn the last three.
- Watford had scored at least twice in seven away Premier League games before losing 1-0 at Burnley on Saturday.
- Both teams have scored in four of the last six Watford away league games.
- Different players have scored the last seven Watford league goals and the last six for Crystal Palace.
- Watford have lost three of their last four away Premier League games.