London Stadium will play host to another Premier League derby on Sunday. We look ahead to the game with our West Ham vs Crystal Palace prediction and preview.
West Ham United vs Crystal Palace Stats: The Quick Hits
- West Ham are predicted to overcome Crystal Palace, with the Opta supercomputer giving the Hammers a 45.3% chance of victory in the Premier League.
- Palace have won just two of their 16 Premier League London derby matches since the start of last season (D5 L9), though both of those victories came against West Ham.
- Both teams have scored in each of the last 12 Premier League meetings between West Ham and Palace – only two fixtures have seen longer such streaks in the competition.
Match Preview
West Ham United will be searching for a third straight Premier League win when they host Crystal Palace in Sunday’s derby at London Stadium.
David Moyes’ side have shot up to ninth in the league table, just six points shy of the top four heading into matchday 14, after back-to-back wins over Nottingham Forest and Burnley. A late 3-2 win over Forest in the capital was followed by more last-gasp drama as the Hammers roared back to steal a 2-1 victory over Burnley on Saturday.
Tomás Soucek’s 91st-minute finish proved the difference at Turf Moor after an 86th-minute Dara O’Shea own goal had cancelled out Jay Rodriguez’s penalty, with Mohammed Kudus assisting both West Ham goals.
The Czech Republic midfielder headed in an 88th-minute winner from a James Ward-Prowse corner against Forest the week before, making him just the fifth player to score winning goals in the 86th minute or later of consecutive Premier League appearances. Soucek was also the first to achieve such a feat since Diego Costa in August 2016 for Chelsea (vs West Ham and Watford), although Moyes will not want to require another late show against Palace. If this wasn’t enough, he added an 89th-minute winner in West Ham’s 1-0 UEFA Europa League victory over Bačka Topola on Thursday night.
The Hammers will be without striker Michail Antonio for the Eagles’ visit due to a knee injury, but Moyes will hope to have a fit-again Jarrod Bowen in his lineup.
The former Hull City forward missed the Burnley trip due to a knee issue sustained on international duty with England but could return to inflict further misery on Palace having scored eight times in 12 Premier League appearances this term.
The Eagles were 2-1 losers at Luton Town on Saturday as Roy Hodgson’s men fell to back-to-back defeats following their 3-2 reverse against Everton at Selhurst Park.
Michael Olise pulled Palace level at Kenilworth Road with a fine individual strike before Jacob Brown’s 83rd-minute winner condemned Palace to a fourth Premier League loss in five games.
Olise has been involved in seven goals in his last 10 Premier League starts (one goal, six assists). Since his debut in September 2021, only Bukayo Saka (46) and Gabriel Martinelli (32) have more Premier League goal involvements while aged 21 or younger than Olise (21 – five goals, 16 assists).
Hodgson will be without star Palace midfielder Eberechi Eze, though, after an ankle injury sustained at Luton could keep him out for up to a month. Eze had only recently returned from a hamstring injury suffered during a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in September that saw him miss three games last month.
An Achilles issue for Cheick Doucouré, who started 11 of 13 league games this season, has made matters worse for the Eagles as the midfielder could be out for up to six months after his injury at Kenilworth Road.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson, James Tomkins and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi all remain out with long-term injuries as Hodgson battles fitness issues with his out-of-form side.
West Ham United vs Crystal Palace Head-to-Head
Palace may be struggling of late but their recent record against West Ham at least offers room for optimism given they are unbeaten in their last four Premier League away games against the Hammers (W2 D2) and are looking to win on consecutive visits for the first time since February 2015.
West Ham also lost both Premier League games against Palace last season, as many defeats as they’d suffered in their previous 14 against the Eagles.
A 2-1 home defeat followed a 4-3 loss at Selhurst Park in April as Eze’s penalty proved the difference after Jordan Ayew, Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp scored, while Soucek, Antonio and Nayef Aguerd netted for Moyes’ men.
The Hammers have never lost three in a row against Palace in league competition and will need to come out on top of what is expected to be another goal-laden encounter.
Both teams have scored in each of the last 12 Premier League meetings between the two sides – only Fulham against Manchester City (15 between 2004-2011) and Newcastle United vs Wolves (13 between 2003-2021) have seen longer such streaks in the competition.
Recent Form
West Ham will hope to put further pressure on European chasers Brighton and Hove Albion, Newcastle United and Manchester United with victory at London Stadium.
The Hammers have won their last two Premier League games, more than they’d won in their previous seven (W1 D1 L5) – Moyes’ side last won three in a row in August and September this season.
Those victories against Nottingham Forest and Burnley have both come despite falling behind, having won only two of their previous 45 games when conceding first (D10 L33) in the competition. It’s the first time the Hammers have won consecutive games despite trailing in each since December 2014 against West Brom and Swansea.
The Hammers’ UEFA Europa League victory in Serbia at Bačka Topola on Thursday night means they enter this match on a four-game winning run in all competitions – their best run since October 2022. They haven’t won five competitive games in a row since January 2021, and on that occasion the fifth win came against Crystal Palace.
Palace, meanwhile, have won just two of their 16 Premier League London derby matches since the start of last season (D5 L9), though both came against West Ham last season.
However, the Eagles have also lost four of their last five Premier League games (W1), as many as they did in their first 18 games of Hodgson’s second spell in charge (W8 D6 L4). They haven’t lost three in a row under Hodgson since May 2021, however.
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.
West Ham vs Crystal Palace Opta Player Ratings
The Opta Player Ratings are something we introduced ahead of 2023-24. For a quick primer on how they’re calculated, you can check our explainer here.
Before kick-off in this match, here are the top five performing players from both teams in the 2023-24 Premier League according to the Opta Player Ratings:
West Ham
James Ward-Prowse: 79.0 (out of 100)
Jarrod Bowen: 76.2
Mohammed Kudus: 70.8
Kurt Zouma: 65.8
Emerson: 65.6
Crystal Palace
Joachim Andersen: 74.4 (out of 100)
Marc Guéhi: 73.4
Tyrick Mitchell: 72.8
Jefferson Lerma: 66.1
Eberechi Eze: 66.0
These Opta Player Ratings also power our set of brand-new, free-to-play gaming experiences, which you can play on Opta Analyst all season long.
West Ham vs Crystal Palace Prediction
West Ham will have their eyes on the top six with victory against Palace, with the Opta supercomputer giving the Hammers a 45.3% chance of triumphing at London Stadium.
Despite their recent run against Moyes’ side, Palace succeed in just 26% of the data-powered simulations, while the draw is more probable, occurring in 28.7% of scenarios.
According to the supercomputer, a ninth-place Premier League finish is the most likely outcome for West Ham (20.2%), while Palace’s poor run has the data suggesting an even likelihood (18.6%) of finishing 13th or 14th in the Premier League standings at the end of the season.
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