Leeds United vs Crystal Palace
England - Premier League 2020-2021. Feb 8th.

MATCH PREVIEW

Leeds Still have Plenty to Play For

The first job of any newly promoted club is to avoid relegation. Leeds United seem to have achieved that and it's only February. Now they can start dreaming of a place in Europe next season. They start the weekend nine points behind fifth place but with a game in hand.

With this match taking place on Monday (both sides are out of the FA Cup), that gap could be up to 12 points. However, Leeds have won their last two games and if they can continue that form, European football isn't out of the question. Top teams winning the domestic cups would help as that means sixth and perhaps even seventh might be good enough.

More consistency is needed from Leeds United though. It's often a case of you never know what they are going to do next. Three times this season they have managed to win two league games in a row (never three). However, they've also lost two league games in a row on three occasions but never three in a row.

Their inconsistency is most apparent at Elland Road. Whereas they have won three of their last four away league games with ten goals scored it's all different at home. Leeds have only won two of the last nine at home with one goal in the last three. Those two good away wins at Newcastle and Leicester weren't built on as they lost at home to Everton in midweek.

Only 14 home league goals have been scored in ten games. That might not sound too bad but nine of them came in two wins over Fulham and Newcastle United. They have had some crazy games this season with 74 goals scored in their 21 games, yet half their home league games have had under 2.5 goals scored in them.

Palace Missing Zaha

That's a headline that strikes terror into Crystal Palace supporters. He's scored nine league goals this season, six more than any of the rest of the squad have managed. The news is that he's out of this match and may miss a few more due to injury.

That would usually worry Palace fans because they might not yet be safe from relegation. After the latest set of Premier League fixtures, they are 13th in the table but a healthy 15 points above the drop zone. A few more wins will see them safely in the top flight for another season.  

They are only behind Leeds on goal difference but they have played a game more, making a late charge for European football more difficult. Their fans also don't have much of a clue about what their team might do next. 

Palace have won their last two league games with wins over Wolves and Newcastle. Before that though, the Londoners had won just one of their last seven league games. That was a home win over bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United. Avoiding defeat in this game will see them equal their best league run of the season, a massive three games.

Away form has produced four league wins this season. The most recent one at Newcastle ended a run of two points from four on the road. Palace have scored 13 away league goals in 11 games but 12 of them have come in the games they've won. In the other seven,they've only scored at West Ham. 10 of their last 15 away league matches have seen them fail to score and now they have no Zaha.

Palace won the reverse fixture 4-1 but revenge looks on the cards here. A bet on Leeds United with under 2.5 goals looks a great bet to make but perhaps not too high a stake.