Palace v West Ham United

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Keith Millen

Story so far

Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars with at fantasy.premierleague.com or with FIFA Ultimate team.

West Ham United head to Selhurst Park off the back of a defeat at the hands of Tottenham last weekend. ‘Big Sam’ will be hoping for a more positive outcome in his second London derby in as many weeks.

Palace go in to the game still on the search for a manager but caretaker boss Keith Millen will have been encouraged by the Palace performance, despite defeat, against Arsenal.

According to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, of the 275 players to represent their clubs last weekend, Palace fullback Joel Ward managed to clock the fastest sprint speed, reaching a top speed of 33.9kmph.

His pace is something that can have a great impact both in attack and defence and he’s certainly one the Hammers should watch out for.

Martin Kelly, his fullback partner making his first start for Palace, had a great defensive contribution against Arsenal, making eight clearances and two interceptions. This combined with a top speed of 32.4kmph, posed a double attacking threat from the fullback positions and Palace will look to utilise this against West Ham.

Marouane Chamakh was the player who covered the most ground for The Eagles, working tirelessly up front to chase defenders down. EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that he ran a total of 11.552km throughout the game, and when added to his seven attempted tackles, shows that not only can he grab a goal, but is also willing to word hard for the team too.

Of Allardyce’s men it was Mark Noble who was most busy going forward. He made 36 passes in the opposition half, more than any of his teammates, according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Of his 72 passes across, 87.5% were accurate and he therefore poses a genuine threat to the Crystal Palace defence.

The imposing Cheikhou Kouyate, bought from Anderlecht, lived up to his reputation of being one of the division’s new ‘hardmen’ by winning the most tackles of any player throughout the game (5), as shown by EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.

Kouyate is seemingly fitting into the physical nature of the Premier League easily, and is likely to continue his committed style against Palace.

West Ham winger Stewart Downing clocked the quickest sprint speed of any player in the entire league last weekend, running at a top speed of 35.1kmph – meaning he has the potential to be a real danger man in the upcoming match against Palace.

Downing is 8/1 to score at any time with 888sport.

Team news

Crystal Palace

Scott Dann has an outside chance of being involved as he battles to beat a hip strain.

Adrian Mariappa, Jonny Williams and Jerome Thomas have all returned to training, but Jason Puncheon is suspended.

West Ham

The Hammers will be without centre back James Collins, who is suspended after picking up a red card in last weekend's defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Fellow defender James Tomkins remains doubtful with a hamstring problem, while Matt Jarvis could also miss out, along with Carl Jenkinson (hamstring).

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"From day one we've been favourites to get relegated, so it's always been us against the world if you like anyway.

"And I think that suits us, we like to be the underdogs, and we like to prove people wrong. Come Saturday you'll see a united team that will want to get three points for the club.

"I think they realise, the lads know that it's no reflection on them, they've done nothing wrong.

"None of the managers or anyone that's left has been because of the players, and they know that, it's not affected their confidence.

"The only question mark from them is what direction we're going to take now.

"The beauty of me being able to continue it is I know what we're good at, so that hasn't caused too much unrest.

"We've continued on the lines that I think brings the best out of the players."

Sam Allardyce

"I think they have some better players than last season but they very much stick to the same type of structural organisation," he said.

"We didn't beat them last year and it will be just as difficult, if not more so, with the players they've brought in.

"The new players have lots of Premier League experience and from that point of view we'll have a tough job.

"There's still lots of excitement around the ground and the stadium, the players know their position now, they know what their job is. At the start of last season they found it difficult to cope with the league, but Tony Pulis came in and structured it accordingly.

"It'll be a tight game. I don't think there'll be many goals in it, but hopefully it'll be as entertaining as it possibly can be."

West Ham United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
18th	1	0	0	1	0

Full league table

West Ham United - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
1	0	0	1	0	1

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
19/04/2014	League	West Ham United	0 - 1	Crystal Palace
03/12/2013	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	West Ham United
25/02/2012	League	West Ham United	0 - 0	Crystal Palace
01/10/2011	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	West Ham United
29/05/2004	League	West Ham United	0 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

West Ham United 0-1 Palace

Saturday April 19 2014

West Ham United: Adrian, Reid, Tomkins, Armero, McCartney, Noble, Diame, Nolan (Nocerino, 85), Downing (Cole, 78), Jarvis (Cole, 70), Carroll

Subs not used: Johnson, O'Brien, Jaaskelainen, Taylor

Bookings: McCartney

Palace: Speroni, Dann, Mariappa, Ward, Delaney, Puncheon (Gabbidon, 87), Dikgacoi, Bolasie (Parr, 89), Jedinak, Jerome (Murray, 82), Ledley

Subs not used: Guedioura, Ince, Hennessey, Gayle

Goals: Jedinak (pen 59)

Bookings: Murray