Match Preview: Brighton v Crystal Palace

You don’t need a match preview of Brighton v Crystal Palace to tell you how big a game this is. But this 143rd meeting between the two rivals at the Amex Stadium takes on extra significance for the Albion as it could go a long way towards deciding whether Graham Potter’s side remain in the Premier League.

The Seagulls come into the game just four points outside of the relegation zone. After Palace’s visit, the fixture list reads: top five chasing Wolverhampton Wanderers away, top five chasing Arsenal at home, third place Leicester City away, top five chasing Manchester United at home, Norwich City away, champions elect Liverpool at home and reigning champions Manchester City at home.

Daunting isn’t the word. Which makes beating Palace all the more important as – trip to Norwich aside – it is quite possible that we won’t be tasting victory again until the end of April.

Moving a potential seven points clear of Watford, West Ham United and Norwich would at least provide a little breathing space ahead of that nightmare run of game.

So no pressure or anything.

A brief history of Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace were formed in 1905 out of the desire for the football ground at the Crystal Palace Exhibition Centre which hosted FA Cup finals at the time to have a professional club side playing there on a regular basis.

Palace were forced from their first home by the outbreak of World War I and subsequently played at Herne Hill Velodrome and then the Nest, which is now the site of the Southern Rail Depot in Croydon. The Eagles moved to Selhurst Park in 1924, by which time they were a Football League club.

They’ve played there ever since and in a touching gesture, have refused to renovate the stadium. This allows supporters to get an authentic feel of what it was like to watch football when children were still sent to work up chimneys.

Palace first started to make a name for themselves in the the late 1960s when they rose to the top flight. The club have spent most of the last 50 years in the top two divisions of English football. They are currently in their seventh consecutive season of Premier League football, having slipped into administration on a couple of occasions before reaching the promised land.

One of those spells in the red saw them fail to pay a St John’s Ambulance Bill, which forced Palace fans to step in and settle the debt out of their own pockets. Other classy moments in Palace history include Wayne Hennessey getting photographed making a Nazi salute and then claiming to not know what it meant and Palace legend Neil Shipperley being caught masturbating in a white van in front of a mother and her 16-year-old daughter.

Please remember this part of our match preview when Crystal Palace fans starting singing about Brighton captain Lewis Dunk being a sex offender. Despite the fact Dunk was found not guilty. The irony.

Crystal Palace this season
It’s been a bit of a strange season for Palace. Their current haul of 33 points is the most they’ve ever had after 27 games of a Premier League campaign, and yet their supporters remain somewhat disgruntled by the approach of Roy Hodgson.

Ultimately, Hodgson’s job is to keep Palace in the top flight and he’s well on track to do that. But you kind of understand the fans’ frustrations too. Here they are, seven years into their Premier League adventure and they’re still simply hoping to stay up each year.

As Crystal Palace website The Eagles Beak told us in their preview of the game, there doesn’t seem to be any plan break into the top 10 – which is the complete opposite of Brighton, where Tony Bloom has made it very clear that is his ambition.

Questions will no doubt be asked come the end of the campaign about whether Palace need to part company with Hodgson in order to move to the next level. But as the Albion’s current relegation battle shows, there are no guarantees that a young, innovative, attack-minded boss will produce better results.

Brighton’s head-to-head record with Crystal Palace
Palace just about shade the head-to-head record with 59 victories to Brighton’s 50 and 33 draws. They are far more dominant when it comes to scoring, having racked up 250 goals in derby games with the Albion sitting on 199.

That overall head-to-head is skewed by war time football however, where the Eagles picked up 11 wins from 14 meetings. If you take the club’s records in Football League competitions only, then it is in fact Brighton who are the better outfit with 42 wins to Palace’s 41.

Palace may have spent most of their history playing at a higher level, but there really isn’t that much between us.

Brighton’s head-to-head record with Crystal Palace

Last six meetings
• Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton (Premier League, 16/12/19)
• Crystal Palace 1-2 Brighton (Premier League, 09/03/19)
• Brighton 3-1 Crystal Palace (Premier League, 04/12/18)
• Crystal Palace 3-2 Brighton (Premier League, 14/04/18
• Brighton 2-1 Crystal Palace (FA Cup Third Round, 08/01/18)
• Brighton 0-0 Crystal Palace (Premier League, 28/11/17)

Since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017, it’s Brighton who are enjoying the better of the rivalry having suffered just one defeat in the past six games. That came at Selhurst Park in April 2018, when Chris Hughton’s side typically decided to give their worst performance of the season in the most important game.

Last season’s double was the Albion’s first over Palace since the 1983-84 season. Potter meanwhile should have overseen victory in his first derby in charge back in December. Brighton battered Palace for 70 minutes but had only Neal Maupay’s goal to show for their efforts, allowing the Eagles to come back into the game and rack up 20 shots in the final 20 minutes to salvage a draw.

Team news
Dale Stephens is back from injury which gives Potter a full strength squad to pick from, bar long-term absentee Jose Izquierdo. We saw the Brighton boss abandon Potterball for the first time away at Sheffield United last week, picking a side who could best nullify the Blades’ threats rather than one which would try and pass the ball.

That pragmatic approach from Potter paid off as the Albion earned a crucial point in the battle to avoid relegation. It will be interesting to see whether he reverts back to his principles for a game which on paper looks easier than a trip to a top-five chasing opponent.

Glenn Murray has four goals in his last four games against Palace so he should surely continue to lead the line. Then there is the question of what happens with Alexis Mac Allister. In the week leading up to the visit to Bramall Lane, every other post on the official Brighton social media channels was used to hype up the £7 million signing for Argentina, only for him to not even make the matchday 18.

Instant hero status could await if he is involved this time.

Crystal Palace’s key players
When he isn’t auditioning for a spot on the Olympic diving squad or throwing a strop because things aren’t going his way, Wilfried Zaha is one of the best players outside of the top six. His time at Palace will surely come to an end this summer as he seeks a bigger stage more deserving of his talents, which we sadly saw at Selhurst in December when he single handedly rescued a point with a stunning equaliser.

Luka Milivojević is also worth keeping an eye on. Brighton seem to love nothing more than giving away penalties against Palace so if you’re looking for an anytime goalscorer bet and aren’t adverse to trying to win money by betting against the Albion, then the Palace captain to net is worth a couple of quid.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Crystal Palace at home
You’ll struggle to find any game that is better than a 3-1 win over your arch rivals in which you finish with only nine men on the pitch. The December 2018 meeting at the Amex was extraordinary in so many ways.

A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Crystal Palace at home
Losing 2-0 at home to a Zaha-inspired Palace in the Championship play off semi finals of 2013 was bad enough. To then be one of only 200 or so people in Oceana on a Monday night, fall asleep in Buddies and not get home until 6am the following morning was soul destroying. Especially given that Gus Poyet had thrown his toys out the pram and talked himself into the sack in the time we’d spent sanking 13 bottles of warm Carlsberg in an empty nightclub.

Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Crystal Palace
As if we even need to answer that.

What we like about Crystal Palace
We’d have loved to have seen the actual Crystal Palace, a feat of architectural genius during its time. It housed Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition when it was constructed in Hyde Park in 1851 before being relocated to the Croydon area, where it remained until 1936.

The Crystal Palace was eventually destroyed by fire, a nice little preview of what the thick locals would end up doing to their own town 75 years later, as Brighton fans like to frequently remind Eagles supporters.

Prediction
Brighton are the only side in English football without a win in 2020. Palace themselves picked up their first success just a week ago when beating Newcastle United. Two sides in poor form with the added pressure and expectation of a derby probably points to another 1-1 draw.