Match: Crystal Palace vs Brighton
League: English Premier League
Date: Monday, 16 December 2019
Kick-off at 19:45 UK/ 20:45 CET
Venue: Selhurst Park (London)
Crystal Palace vs Brighton: The defense has been the hallmark of these two teams this season, and in particular Crystal Palace. No wonder these two classify well in terms of clean sheets. As such, this Monday, few goals are expected in the Selhurst Mark.
Crystal Palace was on tour the last day of the game and, despite the disadvantage, they managed to fight well against Watford. True to their good defensive performance so far this season, visitors have managed to keep their nets clean for 90 minutes.
The match ended 0-0, with the two teams sharing the loot.
Meanwhile, Brighton had the home advantage the previous week, and they were against the Wolves. In the case of four goals, each team scored two goals each to share a single point each.
The advantage of playing at home will clearly increase Palace’s strength that day. They are on an unbeaten three-game run, and their only three losses to the local public in this campaign had been against Leicester, Manchester City and Liverpool.
In addition, since August, the team has not lost against a team other than Manchester City, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool and Tottenham, all of whom compete to finish on the list of leaders. And throughout this season, Crystal Palace has only lost to Sheffield United on the road, apart from these heavyweights.
On the other hand, Brighton has not won in four of his last five games and has also lost three. They had also run out of victories in ten of their fourteen previous clashes. Along the way, they had lost four of their last five trips and had not won in six of their previous seven.
Above all, on this site, Brighton has won only once in the last 14 years, and all these factors combine to choose Crystal Palace as a favorite this Monday. Probably, a double opportunity for them should be a good performance.
Continuing this Monday, once again, the defensive feats of both teams will be at the forefront to determine the outcome of the match. Crystal Palace ranks second in terms of clean sheets this season in the PL. Only the defensive monster Leicester obtained more in this regard, and to cite a statistic, only one more than that of Palace.
Brighton is just below with four clean sheets in number. In addition, the hosts of the day, Crystal Palace, have not scored more than one goal in six of their previous eight games and in 11 of their last 13 home games.
Given these observations, expect the PL match to have less than 2.5 goals this week.
Finally, given the superiority of Crystal Palace, its superiority and Brighton’s difficulties along the way, it is very likely that the home team will keep a clean sheet in the first 45 minutes.