Match Preview: Crystal Palace v Aston Villa

by Dek Hogan

Who are we playing?
Crystal Palace on Saturday 22nd August at 3pm

Where are we playing?
Selhurst Park,
London,
SE25 6PU.

They love a mosaic at Palace

Can I go?
Not unless you've already got your sticky paws on a ticket. Sold Out.

Easy to get to?
The nearest railway stations are Selhurst or Thornton Heath. It's a ballache to drive to.

Can I watch it on telly?

Saturday 3 o'clocker so not legally no. You need a naughty stream or a pub with a dodgy dish.

Have a little patience

Big game?
Huge.

We need to start building a winning mentality and we won't do that until we sort the forward play out. This needs a lot of work and won't happen overnight but we need to make a start.

We have enough talented forward players now to become unpredictable and difficult to defend against, but some sacrifices may have to be made to achieve this. Can't see Gabby being first choice for long unless he can find a new facet to his game; he needs to, his pace will diminish as he enters his twilight years.

Typical Palace fan

Do Palace boast any famous fans?
Palace are popular with brekkie telly hosts, with both Suzanna Reid and Naga Munchetty being Eagles fans.

Neil Morrissey off of Boon is also a fans as is Kellie Shirley off of EastEnders.

We've got David Bradley off of films and the telly.

So we win.



Who's playing for us?

They grow up so fast these days

Players are still getting to know each other so Tim won't want to shuffle the pack too much as this stage, but he surely must see that the frontline he's started with in the first two games simply doesn't function effectively.

We'd chuck Gestede in and have Libor Kozak waiting in the wings should Rudy running out of steam. We'll have to wait and see whether he chucks Adama straight in but it would surely be worth putting him on the bench.

A few knobheads were suggesting that we'd bought the wrong Ayew. Wrong. He'll work his socks off for the team and things will click soon if he's kept in the side. The highly rated Veretout looks a bit lost at the minute but don't be writing him off just yet. He'll come good.

Who's playing for them?
Palace put together a more than decent squad who can give anyone a game on their day. Yohan Cabaye has been reunited with Alan Pardew and when he is in the right mood, he'll really make them tick.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Palace have beaten us on ten occasions while we have 17 wins. There have been 14 draws.

Brian Godfrey

• Last time we played Palace at their place last December, we won thanks to a Big Chris Benteke goal.

• Our first ever meeting was an FA Cup tie in 1913. We won the third round encounter 5-0 thanks a goal from Joe Bache and two a piece from Harold Halse and Clem Stephenson.

• Our first trip to Selhurst Park was in 1968. We ran out 1-0 winners courtesy of a Brian Godfrey strike.

Prediction
2-1 to us