Arne Slot’s men are big favourites with the Opta supercomputer here as they aim to retain top spot in the Premier League. We look ahead to Saturday’s Premier League game at Selhurst Park with our Crystal Palace vs Liverpool prediction and preview.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Stats: The Key Insights
- The Opta supercomputer strongly favours Liverpool to maintain their place at the Premier League summit with a win here. The visitors won 60% of pre-match simulations.
- Crystal Palace have conceded more Premier League goals against Liverpool than they have to any other opponent both overall (69) and at home (38).
- This is the fifth time in the Premier League that Palace are facing Liverpool with their opponents top of the table. The Eagles have lost each of the previous four by an aggregate score of 17-4, including a 7-0 home loss in the most recent such encounter (December 2020).
Liverpool head to south London for Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off away at Crystal Palace bidding to make it five straight wins in all competitions.
Liverpool make the trip to Selhurst Park top of the league after an impressive start under new boss Arne Slot, winning five of their opening six Premier League games, with the only blemish a shock 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Palace, meanwhile, have endured a winless start to their league campaign, currently languishing in the relegation zone with three draws and as many defeats from their six matches.
Only in the 1992-93 (eight), 1994-95 (seven), 2004-05 (seven) and 2017-18 (seven) seasons have Palace gone longer without a win from the start of a top-flight campaign. They were relegated in all but the last of those campaigns.
Liverpool have won all three of their Premier League away games this term, securing three points in trips to Ipswich Town, Manchester United and Wolves. Only in the 1990-91 and 2019-20 seasons have they ever won their opening four away games in a league campaign.
The history of this fixture often favours the away team, which is good news for Liverpool. In 30 previous Premier League meetings between Palace and Liverpool, 14 have been won by the away side (47%). This is the highest away win ratio of any of the 109 fixtures to be played 30 or more times in the competition’s history.
Victory on Saturday would see Slot become just one of four managers in Premier League history to win their first four away games in the competition after Luiz Felipe Scolari (eight), John Gregory (five) and Bobby Gould (four).
Slot’s chances of joining that company will be boosted by the fantastic form of Mohamed Salah on the road. The Egypt international has netted in Liverpool’s first three Premier League away games this season, meaning he could become the first player ever to score in a team’s opening four matches on the road in two campaigns, having also got goals in their first five trips of the 2021-22.
Palace have firepower of their own though in Jean-Philippe Mateta, who has scored 15 goals in his last 11 home games in all competitions, netting multiple goals in five of those 11 appearances (four braces, one hat-trick).
Liverpool were in Champions League action in midweek, beating Bologna 2-0 at Anfield to leave them fifth in the league phase table with two wins from two thanks to goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Salah. The latter became the first Liverpool player ever to score in five consecutive European Cup/UEFA Champions League home games.
Crucially, Slot avoided any further injuries in that game, with Diogo Jota making an appearance off the bench having been a doubt heading in. Federico Chiesa was absent against Bologna and will be assessed before Saturday’s match, though Harvey Elliott – who scored the winner in this fixture last season – remains out with a fractured foot.
Palace have a longer injury list, with Cheick Doucouré, Chris Richards and Rob Holding among those still on the treatment table. However, Matheus França could be in line to make his first appearance of the season.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Head-to-Head
Crystal Palace have a shocking recent record against Liverpool, losing 11 of their last 14 Premier League meetings (one win, two draws).
Each of Liverpool’s last four Premier League defeats against Palace have come at Anfield, and they’re unbeaten in their last nine visits to Selhurst Park (eight wins, one draw), not being beaten there since a 3-1 loss in November 2014.
Liverpool won this fixture 2-1 at Selhurst Park last season, with Elliott scoring an stoppage-time winner after Salah had cancelled out a penalty from Mateta.
Palace did enjoy victory in their last clash with the Reds, though, as Eberechi Eze’s early goal gave them a 1-0 win in what was a brilliant end to the campaign for the Londoners that saw them finish in the top half despite flirting with relegation for much of the season.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is strongly backing Liverpool to come away from Selhurst Park with the three points on Saturday, winning 60% of its 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Backed by a home crowd, Palace are given an 18.5% chance of taking the victory themselves, while a draw that could also allow the chasing pack to leapfrog Liverpool to the top of the table occurs 21.5% of the time.
Liverpool currently lead the Premier League, but they are still considered third-favourites to win the title, doing so in just 9.4% of simulations behind Manchester City (72.1%) and Arsenal (18.1%).
Despite their poor start, the Opta supercomputer considers Palace unlikely to go down, relegated only 10% of the time, with 15th rated as their likeliest finishing spot.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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