September 20 2018

James Tomkins

As Crystal Palace host Newcastle, who are the player clashes to watch out for? Hunter Young analyses the pitch battles.

This game provides a serious opportunity for Palace to build some momentum and get a streak of good form going. Palace’s next three games come against opponents of similar stature, but after that they will face top-six clubs in three consecutive weeks.

Much like the Eagles' last opponents, Newcastle have endured a brutal start to the season with their only point coming in a goalless draw with newly-promoted Cardiff City. To be fair to Newcastle, their four losses all came against good teams; losing to Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. The Toon will come to Selhurst Park desperate for a positive result.

James Tomkins v Joselu

Spanish striker Joselu joined Newcastle from relegated Stoke City this summer on a cheap deal of less than £5million. Joselu has shown a good early return on that investment as leading scorer and appearing in all five matches. The forward is also strong in the air as evidenced by 21 aerial duels won.

James Tomkins proved his importance to the Eagles once again last week, helping them secure a victory and a clean sheet upon his return from injury. The Englishman will once again be called upon to limit the opponent's attack and keep a Newcastle side out of the net that has scored in all but one game so far. Step one in this task will be thwarting Joselu.

Wilfried Zaha v DeAndre Yedlin

When watching DeAndre Yedlin play, it is hard not to compare him to Palace left-back Patrick van Aanholt. While Yedlin plays on the opposite side as van Aanholt, he does make similar attacking runs down the wing and is known to whip crosses into the box for his teammates to attack. The good form that Yedlin has been in recently has helped him establish himself as the first-choice right back for the United States National team and will not want to provide any reason for that to change.

Wilfried Zaha supplied yet another moment of magic last week to help inspire Palace to victory with his goal being the difference in the game against Huddersfield. Zaha was deployed a little bit wider than he has been in past weeks which allows him to cut inside and terrorise full backs. While it is almost impossible to stop Zaha, Yedlin will be hoping just to slow him down.

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Jordan Ayew v Martin Dubravka

Martin Dubravka is another summer signing but the Slovakian keeper also spent the second half of last term on loan at Newcastle. The Magpies are not afraid to play the ball back to their keeper and Dubravka has a team high of 146 completed passes. While Dubravka is skilled with his feet, this statistic says more about the rest of the team and the style they play as Luka Milivojevic leads Palace with 255, while Wayne Hennessey has 131, for comparison.

Jordan Ayew put in a solid performance at the front of the Palace attack last time out with his effort impressing both Roy Hodgson and the fans. Ayew’s hold-up play was also decent and he secured the assist for Zaha’s winner. Ayew will be looking to cut off some of Newcastle’s pass-backs to the keeper and try to force errant passes from Dubravka to flip the possession back to the Eagles.

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