Chris Sutton predicts result of West Ham United Premier League clash v Crystal Palace
Chris Sutton has made his prediction ahead of West Ham United’s Premier League clash with Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers claimed a late win over Backa Topola as Tomas Soucek smashed home his fifth goal in his last five games for club and country, following his strike in the win over Burnley last weekend.
And speaking to BBC Sport (30 November) before that game, Sutton admitted the trip to Serbia could effect this result as he tipped the travelling Eagles to get a point despite their poor form of four defeats in their last five games.
“Crystal Palace’s defeat at Luton means they have lost four of their past five games but it is not as if they have been playing particularly badly,” he wrote. “Their 4-0 defeat at Newcastle was the only one of those defeats where they lost heavily.
“West Ham will be hoping Jarrod Bowen is fit, but they have a trip to Serbia in the Europa League to negotiate before they can think about this one.
“That definitely helps the Eagles, and this game smells of a draw to me. It’s just a case of whether there will be any goals or not. 1-1.”
Tough
Palace are a notoriously tough side to beat, and Roy Hodgson loves to set up in a defensive way especially when they’re the travelling team.
With West Ham taking part in a tough game just a few days beforehand that won’t help preparations obviously, and Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio’s fitness is up in the air which makes things tough too.
Performances in recent weeks haven’t been anywhere near good enough in reality despite the positive results, and having the home crowd behind us should be helpful for the players on the day.
But if they turn in another poor performance it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear the crowd turn and tell them, which could make for a more difficult game and allow Palace to come into it more.
Ultimately we should be the favourites, especially since Cheick Doucoure and Eberechi Eze are out injured for the Eagles, but on recent performances a draw probably isn’t a bad prediction.
In other West Ham news, Cole “feels sorry for” Irons star after fresh snub by Moyes live on air.