Key events
Crystal Palace v West Ham is go …
1 min: Crystal Palace get the ball rolling, their players wearing their customary home kit. West Ham’sd players wear white shirts, orange shorts and white socks. Game on!
Not long now: Most of the fans are safely in their seats, the last few stragglers are on their way in to the ground and the players are ready for action.
Captains Wilf Zaha and Declan Rice lead out their sides to a soundtrack of Glad All Over from the Selhurst Park faithful and line up either side of Craig Pawson and his team of match officials. It’s a beautiful, sunny spring day in Sarf Lahndan and kick-off is just a few couple of minutes away.
Kick-off delayed by 15 minutes
With hundreds, if not thousands of Palace fans still unintentionally locked outside the ground and the resident IT crowd busy at work trying to fix the card readers, kick-off has been delayed until 12.45pm (BST).
Not long now: Or is it? There are a lot of Palace fans stuck outside the ground, apparently unable to gain access to the ground because of some problem with the season ticket card readers. There’s no news of any delay to kick-off yet but we’ll keep you posted.
David Moyes: “I thought Roy was mad when he came back in but he has an incredible passion for the game,” said the West Ham manager ahead of today’s game. “I can understand why people want to work with him because he is such a talented coach. I hope we can win the game but I have to say Roy has done a fantastic job. We are in a position that we would rather not be and we have to keep picking up points. Our aim is to get as high up the table as we possibly can.”
Roy Hodgson: “We expect the same sort of tactical challenge you expect from most teams in the Premier League,” said the Crystal Palace manager during yesterday’s pre-match presser.
“They are a good team, they have good players, they are very well coached and managed and they have a lot of experience as well. They know just as well as we do what playing in the Premier League means.
“It’s not a question of a particular style. It’s trying to deal with the good organisation and quality they have, making sure we are a match for it, and that we in turn can ask them some questions with regard to the play that we put before them.”
Those teams: Wilf Zaha returns to Crystal Palace’s starting line-up for the first time in four games and is one of four changes to the side beaten by Wolves on Wednesday made by Roy Hodgson. Joel Ward, Jeffrey Schlupp and Cheick Doucoure also come in.
David Moyes makes two changes to the West Ham side that lost against Liverpool in midweek. Pablo Fornals makes only his second start since January, coming in for Said Benrahma. Emerson Palmieri starts at left-back, with Aaron Cresswell making way.
Crystal Palace v West Ham line-ups
Crystal Palace: Johnstone, Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Doucoure, Schlupp, Olise, Eze, Zaha, Ayew.
Subs: Guaita, Milivojevic, Tomkins, Lokonga, Mateta, Hughes, Edouard, Richards.
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson, Rice, Soucek, Paqueta, Fornals, Antonio, Bowen.
Subs: Areola, Cresswell, Lanzini, Downes, Cornet, Ings, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Kehrer.
Today’s match officials
Early team news
Wilfried Zaha is back and available for selection for Crystal Palace, having missed their past four game with a groin injury, while Nathanial Clyne may also feature. Joachim Andersen is rated at no better than fifty-fifty after being taken off at half-time during Palace’s defeat at the hands of Wolves last time out, a game in which the Dane scored an own goal.
West Ham have a fairly clean bill of health and are only missing Gianluca Scamaca, who is recovering from knee surgery he recently underwent in Rome. Despite the procedure taking just a few minutes, Scamamca’s new representatives have said their client will need up to three months to recuperate, apparently raising eyebrows behind the scenes at West Ham and prompting speculation that they are trying to engineer a move back to Serie for the striker, who has underwhelmed during his first season in the Premier League.
Premier League: Crystal Palace v West Ham
The opportunity to put further distance between themselves and the drop zone is up for grabs as Crystal Palace host West Ham at Selhurst Park in the first of this bank holiday weekend’s Premier League games. Just three short of the magic 40-point mark, Palace can pretty much guarantee themselves an 11th consecutive season in the top flight with victory, or even a point today.
Three points behind them in the table having played one game fewer than both their hosts and the five sides beneath them, West Ham will probably serttle for a point too. They’ve hauled themselves five points clear of the relegation trapdoor after taking seven of the past 12 points available but are still only a couple of bad results from being sucked right back into the relegation mix. They will be eager to add to their tally, with more daunting league fixtures against Manchester City and Manchester United to come.
Kick-off at Selhurst Park is at 12.30pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
