Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa: Premier League preview, team news, stats, predictions, kick-off time

Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday; kick-off 3pm.

Team news

Crystal Palace are boosted by the return to fitness of striker Odsonne Edouard ahead of Saturday's visit of Aston Villa.

Edouard was restricted to a late substitute appearance in last week's 3-3 draw at Burnley but is back to full fitness and available from the start this weekend.

Midfielder James McArthur will again be absent. The vice-captain's recovery from a hamstring injury is being managed on a week-by-week basis and he will not feature this weekend.

Saturday's match is likely to come too soon for Nathan Ferguson, who is close to completing his comeback from an Achilles tear.

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Aston Villa expected to welcome back midfielder Douglas Luiz after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

Fellow midfielder Morgan Sanson could make his first Premier League appearance since April, but Villa will be without forwards Bertrand Traore and Trezeguet for the trip to Selhurst Park.

How to follow

Follow Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa in our dedicated live match blog. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel from 5.15pm on Saturday.

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Last time out...

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Jones Knows prediction

The nature of this job means I'm going to be wrong on regular occasions. It comes with the territory.

But I'm not sure I've ever been so wrong in predicting with confidence that a low-scoring first half was on the cards between Burnley and Palace last weekend. There were five goals, with Palace scoring more in 45 minutes (3) than they had achieved in their previous 11 first halves this season (2). I'm going to file that occurrence as an anomaly and stick to my theory that Patrick Vieira is all about keeping things controlled and tight early on in matches.

And what we saw from Steven Gerrard's Villa last weekend is that he wants exactly the same as he bids to make them a tough team to play against once again. There were just five shots in the first half of Villa's win over Brighton, with Gerrard asking his back line to play almost as four central defenders in a very compact formation.

I'm expecting this game to get livelier after the break when Palace should take over. Take your pick on how to play the boring first-half angle. You can have 11/10 for the second half to produce more goals or simply back the 0-0 at half-time at 7/4 with Sky Bet.

SCORE PREDICTION: 2-0

BETTING ANGLE: 0-0 at half-time (7/4 with Sky Bet)

Opta stats

• Crystal Palace have won five of their last six home league games against Aston Villa (L1), including each of the last three in a row.
• Aston Villa have won three of their last five Premier League games against Crystal Palace (L2), as many as they had in their first 13 against them in the competition.
• When scoring at least once in Premier League games against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace's record is P11 W7 D3 L1, winning the last six such games. However, the Eagles have failed to score in five of their last eight against the Villans in the competition.
• Crystal Palace are unbeaten at home in the Premier League so far this season (W2 D4). They last avoided defeat in their first seven home games of a league campaign in 1993-94 (second tier), while they last did so in the top flight in 1990-91.
• Crystal Palace are without defeat in their last seven Premier League games (W2 D5), the longest current unbeaten run in the competition. The Eagles themselves last had a longer unbeaten run in the competition in December 2017 (8 games).

Premier League Preview - Expect a 'whirlwind' impact from Rangnick at Man Utd | His objectives | Plus: Brighton, Brentford analysis

Peter Smith is joined by Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith, and football journalist Simeon Gholam to look ahead to the Premier League weekend.

PART 1 | Alan Smith discusses Ralf Rangnick's appointment as Man Utd interim boss, what he will bring to the club, and how he could help their young players kick on. Is he paving the way for Mauricio Pochettino? Alan assesses Rangnick's consultancy role, which is planned to start next summer, too.

PART 2 | Simeon Gholam breaks down Brighton's mixed start to the campaign and what they need to do to get back to winning ways against Leeds.

PART 3 | Simeon - our EFL Editor - also looks at newly-promoted Brentford, who have also had a good start followed by a frustrating period, ahead of their Super Sunday clash with Everton.

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