Yohan Cabaye will face his old team for the first time since returning to the Premier League when Crystal Palace host Newcastle at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Cabaye made 79 appearances for Newcastle over the three years at the club before moving onto Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the 2013-14 season. He then reunited with former Magpies boss Alan Pardew at the start of the current season.
Palace will be hoping to recover from what was a disappointing loss at home to Sunderland last time out after Scott Dann and Wayne Hennessey handed the Back Cats a goal following a tangle, allowing Jermain Defoe to run around and score.
Newcastle also lost at home last weekend to an in-form Jamie Vardy and Leicester City 3-0. Added incentive will be getting one over their former coach, who had a difficult time while at the helm at St James’ Park.
Key Battle – Yohan Cabaye vs Moussa Sissoko
Cabaye has been the point of which most of the attacking from a Crystal Palace perspective has started. He is often the man spreading the ball out wide to the dangerous Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha, who follow up by running at defences. This is something that Newcastle are going to need to stop and the man in charge of this will be defensive midfielder Moussa Sissoko.
Given Newcastle have shown that they have frailties at the back and are without first choice goalkeeper Tim Krul, they will need to stop Palace’s forward movement as quickly as possible and this means closing down the diagonal balls that Cabaye can play to find his team mates in more advanced positions.
Team News
Palace are able to name an unchanged starting XI with only Bakary Sako picking up an injury on the previous matchday. There is the potential, however, to include Marouane Chamakh, who played 14 minutes off the bench last week but given his history of injuries, Pardew may chose to leave the striker on the bench as he tries to regain match fitness.
Crystal Palace Expected XI (4-2-3-1): Hennessey (GK); Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare; Cabaye, McArthur; Zaha, Puncheon, Bolasie; Wickham.
Unlike their hosts, Newcastle will have to make a change from last week’s side with Cheick Tiote picking up a hamstring injury. He is a huge doubt, though this hands a chance to someone like Florian Thauvin to try and cement a permanent place in the team.
Newcastle United Expected XI (4-4-2): Elliot (GK); Janmaat, Coloccini, Mbemba, Dummett; Sissoko, Anita, Thauvin, Wijnaldum; Mitrovic, Perez.
Head-to-Head
In the 21 previous meetings between the clubs, there is a clear advantage in favor of Newcastle with the Magpies having won 12 games compared to five for Palace with four games ending level.
The last time Palace managed to beat the Magpies at home was 43 years ago in the 1972-73 season.
Previous Meetings
In the last match between the two sides, which was also at Selhurst Park, it ended all square in a 1-1 draw with Pape Cisse scoring for the Magpies and Fraizer Campbell equalising for the Eagles.
Prediction
Although history would seem to dictate that this should be a win for Newcastle, records are made to be broken and this Crystal Palace side is one that should be capable of breaking it. But it must be said that Palace’s home record is not great, having won only two of a possible eight home fixtures. For the opposition, their away record is poor, picking up only four of a possible 18 points on the road.
With that in mind, it is hard to see a clear winner and given that the previous two meetings in the Premier League have been draws, this looks likely to be another.
Crystal Palace 1 Newcastle United 1
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