Aside from their emphatic 8-0 aggregate victory over Hibernian to qualify for the Europa Conference League group stage, Aston Villa have experienced a mixed start to the new season, winning two and losing two of their opening four Premier League fixtures.
Unai Emery’s men were put to the sword 3-0 against Liverpool at Anfield before the international break, with a Matty Cash own goal sandwiched between strikes from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah, leaving the Lions sitting 10th in the table.
Villa will welcome a return to home soil where they have won each of their last eight top-flight matches by an aggregate score of 18-2, including a comfortable 4-0 victory against Everton at the end of August.
Their impressive winning run at Villa Park began with a slender 1-0 success over Saturday’s opponents Crystal Palace in March, a result that extended their unbeaten home record against the Eagles to six matches.
Emery and co will be keen to return to winning ways in a favourable-looking fixture this weekend and build positive momentum before preparing for their Europa Conference League opener in Poland against Legia Warsaw and a top-flight away trip to Chelsea
Crystal Palace entered the international break on a high as they followed up a 4-2 comeback win over Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Cup second round with a 3-2 home victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
Following a goalless first half, Eberechi Eze scored in between strikes from Odsonne Edouard to help the Eagles register their second league win of the season and climb to seventh in the table, sitting on seven points from four games and just three points behind the top four.
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Despite their positive start, manager Roy Hodgson has insisted that his Palace side are “still very much a work in progress” and certain aspects of their game need to be addressed as they conclude September with fixtures against Aston Villa and Fulham as well as a double-header with Manchester United in the league and EFL Cup.
Palace head into Saturday’s match having won only one of their last 11 visits to Villa Park – a 1-0 success in December 2013 – and they have only scored five goals (0.45 per game) during this run; only at Tottenham Hotspur (0.36) do the Eagles have a lower goal-to-game ratio away from home against an opponent that they have faced at least 10 times in the top flight.
However, Palace have made an unbeaten start on the road so far this term, scoring six goals in the process, and securing at least a draw against Villa would see them remain undefeated from their first three away league games of a new season for the first time since the 1994-95 campaign.
