Crystal Palace v Everton 27.04.2019 // 3pm
WE CAN IMPROVE ON OUR HOME FORM, AND RECAPTURE LAST SEASON AND THE SEASON BEFORE WHEN TEAMS KNEW PALACE WAS ONE OF THE HARDEST PLACES TO PLAY.
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to make you happy and proud Even though I felt at 39 points we had secured our Premier League status, it is nice to be writing to you now that we are mathematically safe; it is a good feeling.
Without that pressure for the last three games, we are looking forward to these games and perhaps using these matches to try out some other options and give more minutes to the players who play a key role in our squad. We need to try and get as many points as we can, because first of all we play for our fans and we play for points. We know we haven’t had the best season at home but two of our last three games are at home so we are going to try to take six points from those two games because this will be massive for our fans; we want to make you happy and proud. The fans deserve to be happy until the end of the season and will be with hopefully two victories in these home games. But I hope we have made you proud in many games when we have played away this season. Of course, it is nice when you play at home and win in front of 26,000 Palace supporters. But for fans who travel to away games, we like for them to return home happy and we did this, this season against some top sides and it was amazing – just like we did last weekend in north London. The Arsenal win was special when you consider how many years we have waited to beat them away everything that day was perfect: the weather, the pitch, the opponent, our game plan and the three points; I think that was a complete victory for us. I am so pleased for Christian that he performed against Arsenal in the way he did because he deserves it so much. When footballers don’t play, sometimes they don’t care but that is not Christian, he is a guy who cares
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every single day about football and I love to see that from my teammates because I am like that. Christian knows that I love to see that in him because sometimes when he perhaps misses a chance, we speak about that situation for five minutes and I can see that he is a guy who is very focused in what he is doing. Hopefully he is over his injury, and with three games to go, I know he can finish strongly and it makes me excited for next season with him. Today’s game will be tricky, with Everton playing three of their last five games against the top six and winning each of those matches. They are a good team with a good manager but being at Selhurst Park we have an advantage and we have to use it. It is time to show that we can improve on our home form, and recapture last season and the season before when teams knew Palace was one of the hardest places to play. Hopefully a good performance and result today will set us up nicely for the end of season awards on Tuesday. We can again say we have had a good season and we are all looking forward to that night, to see the fans. But until then… Make some noise!
10 TODAY'S GAME
Crystal Palace v Everton // Saturday 27th April // Selhurst Park
Today's game Towards the business end of the season, both clubs are finding something in the way of form: Palace have found the back of the net in each of their last seven home league games, after failing to score in seven of the 10 before that. Whilst Everton have won four of their last five Premier League games, as many victories as they managed in their previous 17. This is Crystal Palace’s second-best-ever Premier League campaign after 35 games, with their haul of 42 points bettered only by 2013/14 (43). Everton are four points better off at this stage this season (49 pts) than last season (45). Wilfried Zaha has scored nine Premier League goals this season – he’s never reached double figures in a single top-flight campaign. But whilst the Eagles will be hoping the Ivory Coast international is firing on all cylinders up top, the defence will be keeping their eye on Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson – the Icelandic international has been involved in seven Premier League goals against Crystal Palace (three goals, four assists). All four of Roy Hodgson’s Premier League wins over Everton have come at home (P7 W4 D1 L2), with Blackburn in November 1997, Fulham in March 2008 and September 2009 and West Brom in May 2011. Whereas, Marco Silva has lost two of his three Premier League games against Crystal Palace.
Luka Milivojevic Only six players in the Premier League this season have scored more big chances (a situation in which the ball has a clear path to goal) than Milivojevic.
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Previous encounters:
With 98, Wilfried Zaha ranks secondhighest for successful dribbles completed in the Premier League this season.
Head 2 head
One to watch:
All-time
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Palace wins everton wins draws
stat to share: Palace beat Everton 6-0 in 1922 in the FA Cup. The next meeting in 1931 saw Everton win with the same score. Everton are on an eight-game unbeaten run against the Eagles, keeping four clean sheets in the process.
Last TIME OUT everton 4-0 MANCHESTER united 1 Jordan Pickford 23 Seamus Coleman 4 Michael Keane 5 Kurt Zouma 12 Lucas Digne 18 Morgan Schneiderlin 17 Idrissa Gueye 10 Gylfi Sigurdsson
SUBS:
30 Richarlison 20 Bernard
11 Theo Walcott
29 Dominic Calvert-Lewin
16 James McCarthy
Gylfi Sigurdsson has 14 Premier League goals this season from 33 shots on target (the 13th highest in the league).
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6 Phil Jagielka
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18 29
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5 12
20 STEVE KEMBER
Again, as everything changes, it all stays the same, and much like the 1968/69 team, 10 years later the foundations of success for the 78/79 promotion were built on defensive solidity with just four defeats in the whole campaign. “Jimmy Cannon was a great player; not only a good defender but he was good on the ball and we had an understanding that if he came forward with the ball that I would drop in at centre-half for him. “We didn’t give a lot of goals away. Same as the ‘69 side, if your spine is ok: your goalkeeper, two central defenders, two centre-midfielders and your strikers, you’ve got half a chance.” The memories remain as fresh as they did on the day for Kember and none more so than the night of that Burnley game in front of a 51,000 crowd; the match that confirmed Kember’s return to the club coincided with a return to the First Division: “The night against Burnley took us an hour to drive down South Norwood hill to the Queen’s Hotel; just a phenomenal evening. “Getting promotion again and the actual atmosphere around the place was just incredible. When you keep winning football matches there is no greater place to be and when you keep losing them it’s the other way round! “The football we played, and the way we played, that was one of the other great things about it. Not only were we winning games but we were winning them in style. The football that Terry had implemented into the boys when they were younger, passing the ball, was being implemented." Looking towards today, as Palace run out for their penultimate home game of their sixth consecutive season in the Premier League, it is in a large part down to the foundations laid down by Kember and the sides of ‘69 and ’79 that the Eagles are able to class themselves as an established Premier League outfit. Today will see a whole host of icons from those two teams – as well as the ’89 side – returning for another well-deserved moment in the sun at Selhurst
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Park in front of those that saw their greatness and those that have recently heard about it, and it is an occasion Kember is very much looking forward to: “When you all meet up, you’ll be surprised at just how quickly the banter starts up again that you had in the dressing room. “I have found a couple of times when we have had the ‘69 team back together all of the sudden the laughs are there again and you never lose that. That’s one thing you miss after you stop playing: the banter, the camaraderie in the dressing room. “It will be great to see everyone, especially with me having a double meaning for being there with the 69 and the 79 boys!"
"THE NIGHT AGAINST BURNLEY TOOK US AN HOUR TO DRIVE DOWN SOUTH NORWOOD
HILL TO THE QUEEN’S HOTEL; JUST A PHENOMENAL EVENING."
Official beer of
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Mark Butcher, fondly known as Butch, hung up his gloves a decade ago at his home ground The Oval, bringing a spirited cricket career to a close. Ahead of an England summer that could be one in a generation, he spoke with James Woodroof about Ashes and World Cup hopes, his beloved Surrey CCC, the famous red and blue and a special relationship with Steve Kember.