MONDAY night football sees Crystal Palace host Sunderland at Selhurst Park. Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) gives us his betting thoughts.
Crystal Palace v Sunderland | Monday 20:00 | Sky Sports 1
This weekend my strategy in the Premier League was to find ways of getting with the underdogs. While Bournemouth paid dividends, Norwich and West Ham didn't follow suit. I'll have one last crack at that ethos here.
As much as I admire Crystal Palace (backed them in the ante-post handicap) I'm not a massive fan of supporting them at short prices at home. While their away record has been fantastic they've been less fluent at Selhurst Park.
Yes, I'm being very harsh when you consider who they've come up against (Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd etc) but they've won just two of their six South London games this season in the league.
Add that to that fact they finished in the bottom five position in last season's Home Table and there may be substance to the consistent Selhurst gloom.
But why do I want to get with Sunderland? They're awful yeah? Probably yes, but I just can't see their form not picking up at some point with Sam Allardyce in charge.
Yeah perhaps he's bitten off more than he can chew this time around but you'd like to think the longer he gets with the players the more influence he'll have.
Things have improved since his arrival last month. In three of the four games they conceded less than two goals. This was despite six of their last seven under Dick Advocaat failing that test.
The 6-2 defeat at Everton was definitely a freak result within Allardyce's four games in charge with a clean sheet against Newcastle and just one conceded against Southampton and West Ham also under his watch.
Tally that alongside the fact that Palace have only scored 14 goals from their 12 matches (less than Norwich) and you have a case for a low-scoring game. Palace have scored more than one goal just twice in their last eight encounters.
I still believe in Sam Allardyce and his abilities to improve (if not save) Sunderland and with 16 days to prepare for this match I think they'll perform with credit and keep the scoreline respectable. It's Under 2.5 Goals for me.
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Crystal Palace v Sunderland – Under 2.5 Goals (Evens Betfair)
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