PREMIER LEAGUE: The Striker previews the Premier League clash on Friday between BRIGHTON v CRYSTAL PALACE with a recommended BETDAQ bet and extended match stats.
BRIGHTON V CRYSTAL PALACE
8pm The Premier League fixtures just keep coming and we kick off the weekend on BETDAQ Betting Exchange with Friday Night Football as Brighton host Crystal Palace. We’re going to see plenty more midweek fixtures as the league plays catch up with the fixtures missed due to Covid19 over the Christmas and New Year period. This should be an enjoyable TV game however, and Brighton are clear favourites at the moment. They are trading 2.1 at the time of writing.
Both sides grinded out 2-1 wins last weekend in the FA Cup, with Crystal Palace beating Millwall away and Brighton beating West Brom away. You can’t really ask for much more at that stage of the Cup, and with both sides hanging around mid-table in the Premier League, a Cup run would add some excitement to their season. It’s a great shame however that basically finishing mid-table in the Premier League is a better financial option than a Cup win, and we see that reflected in the team selected these days – but that’s a topic for another time.
Brighton started the season in flying form, but then went on an 11 game run without a win. They had plenty of draws on that run and were never playing badly, they just weren’t getting wins. They put an end to that with a 2-0 win over Brentford on Boxing Day and since then they have picked up a draw away to Chelsea and beat Everton 3-2 also away from home. Those two games were very close, and could have gone either way to be honest but given the lack of confidence at Everton at the moment, Brighton were always going to have an advantage in a close game. They arrive into this fixture in good spirits, and although they should be favourites I have to say I wasn’t expecting them to be trading as short as 2.1 when I clicked into the market.
Palace have been a very up-and-down team this season. They have performed better than I expected at the start of the season to be honest, and they look set for a comfortable mid-table finish. I thought they would be in a relegation battle, but they are miles away from that! They have been creating some good xG figures lately and they have been unlucky with some results too. They lost 3-2 to West Ham in their last Premier League fixture, but they finished with a higher xG and then they had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Southampton but had an xG of over double what Southampton created. They also created a bigger xG when losing at Old Trafford to Manchester United.
There isn’t much between these two in the table, and I can’t see much between them on the pitch either. I expect a pretty close game here, much closer than odds on 2.1 on Brighton reflect and the home win jumps off the page to me as a good value lay.
The Striker Says:
Three points lay (liability) Brighton to beat Crystal Palace at 2.1 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://bit.ly/BDQBricry
MATCH STATS
● Brighton are winless in their last five Premier League games against Crystal Palace, alternating between a draw (3) and a defeat (2) each time.
● Crystal Palace have won four of their last seven away league games against Brighton (D1 L2), including each of the last two – they’ve never won three in a row on the road against the Seagulls before.
● Each of the last three Premier League meetings between Brighton and Crystal Palace has seen a result altering goal scored in the 90th minute, with the Seagulls earning two draws and the Eagles one win thanks to those strikes. No fixture in Premier League history has seen a 90th minute goal that changed the result of the match in four consecutive games before.
● Brighton lost their first ever Premier League game played on a Friday (1-2 vs Bournemouth) but have since remained unbeaten in all four such games, keeping a clean sheet each time (W3 D1).
● Crystal Palace have never won a Premier League game on a Friday, drawing three and losing four of their seven such games.
● After an 11-game winless run in the Premier League, Brighton have now won two of their last three in the competition (D1). The Seagulls have scored as many goals in their last three league games as they had in their previous 10 combined (6).
● Crystal Palace have won just one of their last 11 Premier League away games (D3 L7), beating Man City 2-0 in October. Indeed, the Eagles have lost each of their last three league games on the road without scoring a single goal.
● Just 26% of Crystal Palace’s Premier League points have been won in away games this season (6/23), the lowest ratio of any side in the competition this term.
● Alexis Mac Allister scored twice in Brighton’s 3-2 win at Everton last time out, scoring as many goals as he had in his previous 33 Premier League games combined. Just one of the Argentine’s five Premier League goals, however, has come at the Amex Stadium.
● Crystal Palace forward Odsonne Édouard has been directly involved in five goals in his last four Premier League appearances (2 goals, 3 assists), two more than he had in his first 13 games in the competition (3 goals).
