21st Feb 2016 | FA Cup
Eagles To End Treble Dreams?
Palace have kept their early season form going in the FA Cup having knocked out Southampton and Stoke already. Spurs are juggling competitions.
The bookies don’t give Crystal Palace a prayer in the FA Cup fifth round and based on form, that’s understandable. However, it’s not too hard to argue why they are considerably better than best odds of 11/2 suggest.
Firstly, this fixture matters more to the Eagles. Tottenham are squeezing the London derby between two tough Europa League clashes and their Premier League challenge is clearly top priority.
For Palace, they still shouldn’t be sucked into a relegation battle so this represents a chance to get to Wembley and Alan Pardew will play his strongest side accordingly. The return to fitness of Gayle, Sako, Ledley and most notably Bolasie could be significant.
In contrast, Spurs will be missing Lloris, who tends to excel against Palace, while the likes of Alderweireld, Eriksen and Alli all played 90 minutes in Italy on Thursday night.
Pardew’s boys were enjoying a training break in Spain.
Palace have already won at Stamford Bridge and Anfield this season, as well as at St Mary’s Stadium in the FA Cup. At a big price they shouldn’t be discounted, and we haven’t even mentioned the scourge of former teams - Emmanuel Adebayor .
Odds correct at time of publishing: 08:56 21st Feb, 2016 but subject to change
