Crystal Palace’s point away to Aston Villa shows that the club are on the “right pathway” after a difficult start to the campaign, so says head coach Oliver Glasner.
Despite leading on two occasions against the Villans, the Eagles have just one victory in the Premier League this season (D5 L6); their joint-fewest after 12 games of a single campaign in the competition.
While Palace have failed to replicate the form they showed at the start of Glasner’s tenure at Selhurst Park, he is confident that they can build on their latest result when they welcome Newcastle United to south London this weekend.
"I’m very proud of the team's performance. We’re missing some key players in attack, but we still scored two amazing goals,” Glasner said.
"I’m very proud how they played together, worked together, fought together and believed in getting a point here. Overall, it was a good performance for us, and we go home very pleased with the point.
“I think we're on the right pathway, getting a point here at Villa is a good result for us. And now we want to improve our performance to take the win against Newcastle, because this will be necessary.”
The latest round of fixtures concluded at St. James’ Park, though Newcastle faltered at home to West Ham, with Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka on target either side of half-time.
The Magpies have now lost two of their last three Premier League home games (W1), as many defeats as in their previous 20 league matches (W13 D5), leaving them 10th in the table and four points behind the top four.
And Newcastle boss Eddie Howe lamented his side’s inability to put away their chances against the Hammers, while also citing the manner in which his side conceded both goals.
"I don't think anything takes me by surprise in the Premier League. We know every team has qualities. We were the dominant team at half-time and the game would have been very different if we had equalised before the end of first half,” Howe said.
"We know we made individual mistakes for both goals. It was disappointing from our perspective. Very uncharacteristic from us because we've defended well in recent weeks.
"At the end we had players out of position, so I didn't like the way we looked at the end. But up until that 60-minute mark, I thought we were the dominant team.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Crystal Palace – Jean-Philippe Mateta
While Mateta has failed to hit the heights of last season for the Eagles so far this term, the Frenchman’s assist against Aston Villa will give him confidence about returning to home soil.
All five of his goals for Crystal Palace in all competitions this season have come in home games. Since Glasner’s first game in charge of the Eagles in February, Mateta has scored 16 goals in just 13 starts at Selhurst Park in all competitions.
Newcastle – Anthony Gordon
After failing to make the desired impact against West Ham last time out, Gordon will be keen to add to his two Premier League goals this season.
The England international has created more chances (24) than any other Newcastle player this season, and has two goals in six appearances against Crystal Palace, one for the Magpies and one during his time at Everton.
MATCH PREDICTION: NEWCASTLE WIN
While Newcastle are favoured by Opta’s data-led simulations, after winning their first four Premier League away games against Crystal Palace, they have won just one of their last nine visits to Selhurst Park in the competition (D5 L3).
After being unbeaten in eight Premier League away games against London sides between October 2022 and October 2023 (W4 D4), Newcastle have also now lost six of their last eight visits to the capital (W2), shipping at least two goals in seven of those games.
Newcastle have lost three of their last five Premier League games (W2), as many as they had in their previous 17 combined (W9 D5).
However, the Magpies have kept 14 clean sheets in their 26 Premier League games against Crystal Palace. Only against Aston Villa (19) and Arsenal (15) have they recorded more in the competition, while it’s their highest percentage of clean sheets against sides they’ve faced 20 or more times (54%).
Crystal Palace won this exact fixture 2-0 in April, last winning consecutive league meetings with Newcastle between 1971 and 1972 (a run of three).
But the Eagles have just one win and eight points from their 12 Premier League games this season, their lowest points haul at this stage since 2018-19 (also eight), and fewest wins since 2017-18 (also one). This will be the first time they’ve played a Premier League match while starting the day in the bottom two of the table since December 2017 (2-1 v Watford).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Crystal Palace – 33.6%
Draw – 26%
Newcastle – 40.4%