August 1 2017

Selhurst Park (Photo: Andy Roberts)

We are now less than two weeks away from the start of the new season and Crystal Palace could not have asked for an easier game to begin with, writes Ben Blake.

The Eagles’ 2017-18 curtain raiser sees them host Huddersfield in what will mark the Yorkshire club’s first game in the top flight since 1972.

They are the smallest club to make it into the Premiership since Barnsley reached such lofty heights in the mid-1990s, and David Wagner’s men are odds-on favourites to be relegated straight back down.

It provides Frank de Boer with an excellent chance to get off to a winning start at Palace and set the tone for a great season that sees the club break into the top half of the table once more.

Last season was a miserable one for Palace fans to endure as the club flirted with relegation for the vast majority of the campaign.

The arrival of Sam Allardyce did not bring about the initial improvement that was expected, but in the end he managed to turn the ship around and pulled off some fantastic victories over the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal to drive the Eagles up the table.

In the end they finished 14th, but a late wobble saw them end up just one point ahead of 17th placed Watford. They will need to massively improve if they are to succeed this coming campaign.

Huddersfield did not enjoy a particularly strong finish to the season themselves. For large parts of the campaign they were in the mix for an automatic promotion spot, but they took just five points from their last six games and finished fifth.

They struggled through the play-offs without winning a game, but earned promotion on the back of two consecutive penalty shoot-out successes.

They shelled out £10million on Tom Ince and another £8million to make Aaron Mooy’s loan move permanent, but they have not exactly set the world alight with their ambition this summer and they are not given much of a chance of staying up.

Bet365, which offers competitive odds and strong bonuses, as this review shows, is offering 4/6 on Huddersfield being relegated and that looks like a fantastic bet.

Meanwhile Crystal Palace are all the way out at 11/2 to go down and 7/2 to finish in the top half. Fans would have hoped to see a lot more ambition from the club this summer, as being outspent by Huddersfield is a bit embarrassing.

Hopefully they will rectify this soon, and more arrivals will join Jairo Riedewald and Ruben Loftus-Cheek through the door.

There are plenty of good options for De Boer to choose from across the midfield and Wilfried Zaha provides real star quality, while Christian Benteke is a perfect forward for Palace, but the defence clearly needs strengthening after the Eagles shipped 63 goals last season.

Calum Chambers and Mamadou Sakho continue to be linked, although Roma could scupper a deal for the latter. De Boer should have some pretty good contacts across European football though and you would expect some new faces before the big kick off on August 12.

But even without any additions Palace should be able to get off to a winning start against Huddersfield. Newly promoted teams often play with confidence and get off to a flier, but Palace should have too much quality for Wagner’s team and anything less than three points would be a grave disappointment.

Over at Bet365 again you can get odds of 3/4 on Palace winning and the odds are strong because, for some reason, most of the action is going on Huddersfield.

This is the season where Palace should assert themselves as a force in the Premier League and this is therefore a game where three points are imperative, so it might be worth backing Zaha and Benteke to fire Crystal Palace to a win.