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Leicester City will aim to continue their incredible Premier League title challenge when they travel to South East London, taking on Crystal Palace at Selhust Park.
Crystal Palace is in dreadful form, failing to win any of the last 12 Premier League matches, from which they lost 8! The last league victory was in mid-December, but even so, the hosts are pretty safe from relegation due to their excellent first part of the season. The reason for this poor form has clearly been Palace’s defense. They allowed at least one goal in each of the last 10 Premier League games. We are talking about a team that had one of best back lines in the league, playing defensively for 0-0 draws and 1-0 wins. Now that the defense collapsed there are huge problems, because Palace lacks quality in attack big time, barely scoring 1 goal per game in average.
The Foxes finally acknowledged their situation and the fact that the title is up for grabs. As a result, Leicester changed its approach lately, choosing to take absolutely no risks at the back and try to snatch 1-0 wins – which they did in 3 of the last 4 matches, including on Monday against Newcastle. With more and more teams starting to sit back and defend against Leicester, the visitors are now forced to play a waiting possession game, which so far worked pretty good.
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Team news & lineups:
Puncheon, Appiah, McArthur, Wickham and Chamach are out for Palace, while Jedinak is doubtful. Leicester, like usual, can field the best lineup. James is out and King is doubtful.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey – Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare – Jedinak, Cabaye, Ledley – Zaha, Adebayor, Bolasie
Leicester City: Schmeichel – Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs – Albrighton, Drinkwater, Kante, Mahrez – Vardy, Okazaki
The blueprint for frustrating Leicester is out there, as teams finally realized they need to put men behind the ball and defend against the Foxes. An old school Crystal Palace team with no quality up front and with strikers out injured is more than likely to choose the same approach as Norwich, Watford or Newcastle did in Leicester’s recent 1-0 wins. I expect this even if Palace defended like rubbish recently.
A bright spot for Palace in 2016 was the FA Cup, where they won 3 matches in order to reach the semifinals – including 2-0 over Reading last week. They will look to build on that victory and put in a better defensive performance today. Surely that’s what Pardew is aiming for and considering how careful Leicester played lately, I reckon a bet on goals not to happen is the right choice here. I don`t see Palace attacking and I don`t see Leicester pushing too much.
Odds on under 2,5 goals are going up, but I will go against the general opinion and tip the under with reasonable stakes. Prediction: Crystal Palace – Leicester City 0-1.
Pick: under 2,5 goals
Odds: 1.82 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 5.74
Event date: 19 March
