31st Aug 2013 | Football
Crystal Palace v Sunderland
A lack of cutting edge has so far been the major undoing of both these sides.
Sky Sports may not have picked a classic for their Saturday evening viewers with the prospect of the greatest entertainment coming on the sidelines for this one. Paulo Di Canio and Ian Holloway may be ‘box-office’ but their players often struggle to add much glitz.
Palace are slowly adapting to life back in the big time but most pundits won’t be surprised to see them pointless from two fixtures. Today they could get off the mark against opponents who have only won two of their last 17 Premier League games. But to be honest, it’s hard to back either team for victory with any real confidence.
That makes the draw an option at 23/10 (Betfred) but I think we can finesse the bet and actually go for 0-0 at best odds of 9/1 with BetVictor.
Both Sunderland and Palace have only scored once apiece in their respective two league games and that looks like being a problem that will continue, at least for now. Steven Fletcher travels but not yet be fully fit for the Black Cats while the Eagles are still struggling to fill the void left by injury to Glenn Murray.
That said, neither team look too bad defensively which increases the likelihood of this being a goalless draw at a decent price.
Odds correct at time of publishing: 11:59 31st Aug, 2013 but subject to change
