With both teams sitting pretty in the top six, Sunday’s clash between Crystal Palace and Leicester City is shaping up as the most unlikely of marquee matches in EPL Matchweek 11.
With both teams sitting pretty in the top six, Sunday’s clash between Crystal Palace and Leicester City is shaping up as the most unlikely of marquee matches in EPL Matchweek 11.
Crystal Palace and Leicester City may have grown to become household names in the English Premier League, yet a match pitting these two sides isn’t exactly a blockbuster. Be that as it may, the fact that these two teams are sixth and third respectively in the EPL table makes this one of the most anticipated matches of the weekend.
The Eagles maintained their place in the top half of the table after coming from behind to force a 2-2 draw with Arsenal last weekend. Unai Emery’s side went ahead in the seventh minute through Sokratis Papastathopoulos after capitalising on some poor defending from the visitors, before the Gunners doubled their lead two minutes later though David Luiz.
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It took a VAR intervention for Palace to trim the score line in half, with Luka Milivojevic scoring from the spot in the 32nd minute after Calum Chambers was adjudged to have felled Wilfried Zaha inside the area. Jordan Ayew then scored the equaliser in the 52nd minute to give the visitors a share of the spoils.
Brendan Rodgers has done a magnificent job since taking over the reins at King Power Stadium. That point was underlined in bold when the Foxes thrashed Southampton 9-0 at St Mary’s.
Although Leicester had already found the back of the net through Ben Chilwell by the time Ryan Bertrand was shown a straight red in the 12th minute, it was only after the sending off that the flood gates opened. Both Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez grabbed hat-tricks, while James Maddison iced the cake with a sublime free-kick in the dying moments to give the Foxes the equal-biggest win in EPL history.
Roy Hodgson could welcome back goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and defender Martin Kelly, with the only notable absentees being French defender Mamadou Sakho and English forward Connor Wickham.
Matty James looks poised to be the only absentee for Leicester, as the midfielder continues to work his way back an Achilles injury.
Last Friday’s emphatic performance by Leicester City saw Jamie Vardy propel himself to the top of the EPL goalscoring charts. The Englishman now has nine for the season, which puts him one above Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham. Vardy has scored six goals in his last four EPL outings and looks set to find the target against the Eagles this weekend.
Although both Leicester City and Crystal Palace have lost just one of their last five games in the English Premier League, the Foxes have won all the remaining four while Palace have churned out just two wins. With neither side afraid to flex their counter-attacking muscles, this should be an enthralling end-to-end encounter.
Both teams to score – -117.65 at Bovada
Leicester City 1-4 Crystal Palace (February 23, 2019)
Jonny Evans 64’
Michy Batshuayi 40’
Wilfried Zaha 70’, 90+3’
Luka Milivojevic 81’ (P)
Crystal Palace 1-0 Leicester City (December 15, 2018)
Luka Milivojevic 39’
Crystal Palace 5-0 Leicester City (April 28, 2018)
Wilfried Zaha 17’
James McArthur 38’
Ruben Loftus-Cheek 81’
Patrick van Aanholt 84’
Christian Benteke 90’ (P)
Leicester City 0-3 Crystal Palace (December 16, 2017)
Christian Benteke 19’
Wilfried Zaha 40’
Bakary Sako 90+4’
Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester City (April 15, 2017)
Yohan Cabaye 54’
Christian Benteke 70’
Robert Huth 6’
Jamie Vardy 52’