Wolves vs Crystal Palace Preview
Watch Wolves vs Crystal Palace Preview, as Both clubs will be waiting for a comeback in the league through this meetin at Molineux on today’s meeting.
The hosts fell to a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, despite going a goal up at the King Power, while Roy Hodgson’s side played out a drab goalless draw with Everton.
With eight minutes to play in the first half, Sa caught Jamie Vardy inside the area, and Kelechi Iheanacho coolly tucked home the resulting penalty before right-back Timothy Castagne produced a striker’s finish in the second half to turn the tie on its head for Leicester.
Thanks to West Ham United‘s demolition of Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, Wolves will enter the midweek round of fixtures having slipped below the Hammers into 14th place in the table, behind David Moyes’s men on goal difference and six points clear of the bottom three with six games remaining.
Nevertheless, a blunt Loeptegui warned his Wolves players to avoid “dangerous” thoughts about being close to securing Premier League safety after Saturday’s failure, which ended the hosts’ three-game unbeaten run in April, albeit while extending their scoring streak to seven matches – a marked improvement from their shot-shy days of the first half of the season.
Molineux has also been a happy hunting ground for Wolves in recent months, as Lopetegui’s side boast five wins from seven Premier League home games in 2023 – including each of their last two – and every triumph in that quintet has seen Wolves keep a clean sheet.
Team News and Injury
Not long after setting up Cunha’s opener on Saturday, Mario Lemina was withdrawn at half time due to a hamstring injury, but the Gabon international seemingly laid any fears to rest when he was seen walking normally after the game.
Nevertheless, Lemina will need careful assessment over the next 48 hours, and Lopetegui continues to work without Sasa Kalajdzic and Chiquinho (both knee), while Boubacar Traore is still lacking match fitness and may only make the bench at best.
Should Lemina not be risked from the first whistle, Ruben Neves should immediately return to the fold in the middle of the park, while Diego Costa and Pablo Sarabia failed to make much of an impact at the King Power and could find their places under threat from Daniel Podence and Adama Traore.
As for Crystal Palace, Hodgson is hopeful that Zaha (groin) and Nathaniel Clyne (knee) will be back on the training pitches at some point this week, but Tuesday’s game is expected to come too soon for both men to make their comebacks.
Meanwhile, the luckless Nathan Ferguson has now picked up a fresh muscular problem – a serious one at that – and will remain sidelined for some time, but Hodgson does not have any fresh worries to factor in from the stalemate with Everton.
Vicente Guaita was back on the bench at the weekend, but Johnstone has done enough to retain possession of the gloves on Tuesday, while Mateta and Will Hughes are options to freshen up the XI if tired legs come into play.
Wolves s Crystal Palace Head-to-Head stats
In 15 head-to-head encounters between the two sides, Crystal Palace have won eight games, lost five and drawn two.
Portuguese winger Daniel Podence has six goals in 19 league starts for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Attacker Eberechi Eze has 10 goal contributions in 24 league starts for Crystal Palace this season.
French striker Odsonne Edouard has six goal contributions in 18 league starts for Crystal Palace so far. Forward Michael Olise has 10 goal contributions in 25 league starts for Crystal Palace this season.
Wolves vs Crystal palace Prediction
It has been nearly four years since these two sides shook hands on a draw, but as the table suggests, there is barely anything to separate them, and we just cannot pick a clear winner in this one.
Lopetegui’s side have turned up the heat in front of their own fans recently, but their performance at Leicester evidently worsened when Lemina was withdrawn, and any doubts over his fitness will be taken advantage of by a Palace side who still showed plenty of attacking intent in their draw with Everton.
