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Crystal Palace Fan View: Rotate, Roy, rotate - it's the FA Cup!
A few short weeks ago, heading into the game against Brighton I thought that they probably had the edge. Crystal Palace had bigger fish to fry in many senses, we faced two struggling sides – Stoke and West Brom – either side of the game and at the time Brighton looked the toughest of that little run.
Since then our fortunes have reversed to the extent that just a point separates us in the Premier League, but form is unlikely to carry into this game for a couple of reasons. The first is that this is a derby, in the FA Cup and the second is that we’re likely to see much changed teams on both sides of the pitch.
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We’re in a similar situation again. Any game against Brighton is huge, but so too is our game against Burnley just five days later. A win in that game could take us into the top ten, and could see us overtake Brighton. It’s much the same for Brighton who face West Brom on the weekend, who have now gone 20 games without a win – a perfect slump-buster.
As amazing as it may sound when you consider our start to the season, we could be on the cusp of our best ever Premier League finish. We have Keith Millen, Neil Warnock & Alan Pardew to thank for Crystal Palace’s 10th placed finish a couple of seasons ago, but that isn’t beyond our grasp this season thanks to our recent revival. The very fact we can do that demonstrates how bunched the bottom 12 are – just 10 points separates Stoke in 18th and Leicester in 8th.
In a way it’s a blessing and a curse, we remain in the hunt for only our second top ten finish in the Premier League but could still quite easily go down…
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As for Monday night’s game against Brighton, injuries are a problem for Crystal Palace. Scott Dann is confirmed to be out for the rest of the season and though Roy Hodgson has hinted at a permanent replacement being brought in, that certainly won’t be imminent. For now we’ll have to make do with the trio or Martin Kelly, Damien Delaney and James Tomkins, who has played a lot recently, so don’t be surprised to see Tomkins get a rest.
As for attack, well you can bet your bottom dollar that Wilfried Zaha will want to be involved, but will he be risked? If it was me I’d rest Townsend and start Chung-Yong Lee in his place, purely because Townsend has covered more distance than Zaha, who’s been started in attack on numerous occasions recently while Townsend has done endless tracking back from midfield.
If there’s a time to give Christian Benteke a rest and Bakary Sako his shot at doing it from the start, this could be it too. Hodgson may be understandably cautious about starting him in a Premier League game, but he deserves a chance after the impact he has had on numerous occasions this season already. I don’t think either team has enough depth for a completely second string eleven, but it’ll be fiercely competitive whatever the line-ups.
