Everton Vs Crystal Palace

Everton v Crystal Palace (1945 BST)
Five more wins, starting with this game, and Everton
will qualify for the Champions League, or at least the
qualifying stages.
With a tricky fixture list, they are still
odds-against to pip Arsenal to fourth spot but the
bookies expect them to pick up three points against a
dogged Palace side who have become hard to beat
under Tony Pulis' excellent stewardship.

A 4-0 win over Palace back in April 2005 helped secure Everton's last Champions League
appearance but it won't be so easy this time around. The visitors have conceded just
the once in their last five matches to virtually secure safety, with Chelsea among their
victims. 

Palace also kept Everton out in the reverse fixture back in the autumn. They've been less impressive away from Selhurst Park but still look sure to make things difficult for a side who still aren't firing on all cylinders despite being on their best winning streak since their title-winning 1986/87 campaign. A televised 3-0 demolition of Arsenal is not really representative of how they've been playing. Previous home games had seen wins over Aston Villa, West Ham, Cardiff and Swansea ground out (all were by the single goal), while they were somewhat fortunate to see off rock-bottom Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, a comment that could also be applied to their display at Fulham.

The good news for Everton, who will again pick from the same squad with Phil Jagielka and Steven Pienaar still sidelined, is that they've still managed to notch up wins and they remain worthy favourites here. However, backing them at around 2/5 is not hugely attractive. Instead I'm happy to get with them to post another victory by a one- goal margin. It's a route to profit we've travelled before and the aforementioned stats help show why it's the path to go down. You can get 13/5 which seems more than fair.

For those seeking a bigger price, the 6/1 about 1-0 isn't the worst around. Also worthy
of consideration is under 2.5 goals which is the market outsider at evens, this despite
only two of Palace's last 16 games having produced three or more goals. Everton's
record in this category isn't a reason to back this bet but given Palace's tight defence
and an attack which struggled to break down Sunderland, it's certainly worth thinking
about. On Palace's side of things, Jason Puncheon is the form horse with three goals in
his last two games. He's 6/1 to bag another in this one. 

KC UMEOKAFOR