I see no reason to not expect goals today. Palace are on fire and even broke that Selhurst Park jinx last time out with a 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa ......

 

Talking of teams who are better on the road, none fit the bill more perfectly than Palace who recorded their sixth away win at Fulham over the weekend and played really well. However, they are back at Selhurst Park this evening and it is has been a very different story here, the atmosphere is usually good, but it is hardly an intimidating venue and ahead of their most recent start here, when they hosted Everton, and had all the advantages in terms of freshness and time to prepare, they still lost 2-1. We have been milking this system, back the Eagles on the road where they average 1.69 points and 1.46 goals and opposing them at home where they have collected 0.84 points and scored 0.92 goals per game. This feels very much of the if it ain't broke don't fix it variety, but I should point out that under head coach Oliver Glasner, Palace have had the better of these h2h games, which included a draw in the reverse fixture and 2-1 win at Villa Park in the League Cup both this season and a 5-0 win here at SP late last season. I suspect that game has been often discussed in build up by Unai Emery and his coaching staff and they will want to avenge it, or at least exorcise it from memory. It was an odd one, as it was party time for Villa who had already secured top 4 and a Champions League spot and were mentally lying on a beach somewhere.

 

That was an odd game as Villa were cruelly robbed of a goal by a needless VAR intervention ( if it takes 4 minutes to tell if a player is offside, he "ain't" offside, that is not what it was set up for!) at a time when the game was still in the balance. However, Palace did steamroll them after that, but do have a bit of a soft underbelly on home soil. Ipswich Town are one for the neutrals and pretty much everyone's favourite bottom four team, the one they would most like to stay up. They play good football and always "have a go", typical was their last away league game when they lost 3-2 at Old Trafford to United .....

 

I previewed a recent Ipswich trip to Anfield and you can read those notes via this link. They scored there in a 4-1 defeat and their last five starts (four subsequent) have seen BTS in each. Last of those was a 4-1 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, which was a microcosm of so much of their season. Town "won " BC's 3-1 and xG in the first half and trailed 2-1 and then Spurs added two more after the break from 0.2 xGF and two attempts on target. Ipswich look good with the ball, but not good enough, awful without it, too awful for words! The three promoted clubs fill the bottom 3 positions and have conceded a combined 174 goals and are substandard. But there is more to like about Ipswich than the other two and the offensive threat that has taken them to back to back promotions and 193 goals in the last two campaigns, remains bubbling away under the surface. They have beaten Tottenham (on the road) and Chelsea at Portman Road, scored three at Brentford(!) to highlight that ,but have been unable to build any momentum from those results, but have that upside to their game on a going day, which is as likely to come at Old Trafford as anywhere else.

 

They played in the cup at Nottingham Forest on Monday, losing on penalties after a 1-1 draw following 120+ minutes of football, when again, not much went their way, but they were getting battered for most of the second half. More goals, at least one for Town.

 

2.5 units both teams to score and "over" 2.5 goals @ 2.45 asian line.

 

Good luck!