Premier League: Cherries can put Palace under pressure

DANIEL MCCULLOCH (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his favourite fancies from Saturday's 3pm Premier League coupon.

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace | Saturday 14^th March 2020, 15:00

As I stated in last week’s article, we are getting to the stage of the season where you need to factor in the importance of the game to each side. Bournemouth are currently in the relegation zone on goal difference while Crystal Palace are suddenly 12 points clear of the bottom three with an improbable European adventure seemingly within their grasp.

However, while the South London side have won their last three games – all by a goal to nil – I am still far from convinced by Roy Hodgson’s men.

The Eagles certainly deserved the win at home to a toothless Newcastle outfit but they were very fortunate to emerge victorious at Brighton and I feel that Watford merited a point at Selhurst Park last week. Across the last three matches they have allowed 41 shots – 13 of which were on target – and keeping clean sheet when allowing so many attempts at your goal is simply not sustainable.

That said, they can obviously win at Dean Court even if they do concede as Bournemouth’s backline is far from resolute. Despite this, I have decided to side with Eddie Howe’s men. In recent weeks they have gained important victories at home to Brighton and Aston Villa, as well as drawing at Chelsea. Moreover, I thought the Dorset side were excellent at Anfield last weekend and probably slightly unfortunate to lose the game.

Simply put, I think Bournemouth have enough attacking talent to cause Palace plenty of problems so while I may not back the home side were this game to have been played a couple of months ago, all things considered I do like The Cherries at 7/5 with Bet365.