Crystal Palace vs Leicester – Match Preview

Crystal Palace start the weekend six points clear of the relegation zone going into this week’s meeting with Leicester and are presented with the perfect opportunity to all but secure their Premier League status for next season.

Although their opponents find themselves comfortably lying in 9th place, you get the feeling that Claude Puel’s men are already dreaming of their Summer holidays as their campaign is all but fizzling out in these final few weeks.

For the visiting Foxes their hopes of a Europa League place were extinguished after their recent defeat to Burnley and they did little to show that their interest had not already peaked when they were held to a 0-0 draw by a struggling Southampton side.

The fact that Leicester cannot wait for the season to the end is something that could just as easily play into Crystal Palace’s hands. Should they take advantage of the situation in front of them then they could extend the gap between them and the drop zone to nine points.

Not only that but it is a gap that with just three games left to play after this weekend would almost be uncatchable by Southampton, so should the Eagles win at Selhurst Park then there will be every reason to start the celebrations in South London.

If that is to be the case then Roy Hodgson is going to have to take a huge amount of credit for Palace’s survival. Let’s not forget that the club had the worst ever start in Premier League history under both Frank De Boer and the former England boss Hodgson.

The club that stayed up last season under another former England boss, Sam Allardyce had high hopes for this campaign. But those hopes were quickly shattered when they lost their first eight successive league matches of this season.

To add insult to injury they also failed to score a goal. At that point many were tipping Palace for the drop and to be honest there was little reason to suggest otherwise, however the steady hand of Roy Hodgson has made the outlook a lot brighter.

At the same time one should not forget the efforts of his counterpart this weekend, former Monaco manager Claude Puel. He led Southampton to 8th in the table last season and his sacking has shown the Saints owners that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Their loss has been Leicester’s gain though as the Frenchman was installed as manager last October and after a shaky start under former boss Craig Shakespeare, he has managed to pull them far clear of the drop zone.

He won’t admit publicly, but he will probably feel that his work this season is already done. There’s not a lot more he can get out of the likes of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez after their efforts over the past few months.

So Leicester make the trip South treating this fixture as something of a dead rubber, something that Crystal Palace are not viewing it as. They’ll have the extra incentive to earn a maximum points and will be favourites to earn them. A home win and plenty of celebrations to follow this weekend.