Everton vs Crystal Palace 08/02/20

8 February 2020

Everton and Crystal Palace go head-to-head at Goodison Park this weekend in what can be a low-scoring Premier League (PL) affair. Indeed, both of their previous top-flight H2Hs have ended in identical goalless draws.

Unbeaten in their last four PL outings (W2, D2), the hosts go into this clash on the back of a 3-2 away win over Watford, which saw them pull off a stunning comeback to seal three points. Notably, all nine of Everton’s previous league fixtures have ended separating the teams by under 1.5 goals (W4, D4, L1). That’s very much in line with the Toffees’ home results in the league this season, as 58.33% of their 12 PL home matches saw the winner (if any) prevail by a single-goal margin. Keeping a clean sheet will be of the essence for Carlo Ancelotti’s side when knowing four of their six PL home wins were to nil, with just two yielding a winning margin of two goals.

Meanwhile, the visitors are still chasing their elusive first competitive triumph in the new calendar year (D3, L3), with five of their six matches since the turn of 2020 featuring under 2.5 goals. Their fortunes are unlikely to turn around here, as they’ve failed to beat Everton in each of their previous four top-flight trips to Goodison (D2, L2). Arguably one of the weakest attacking sides in England’s top-tier, the Eagles have scored one goal or less in four of their last five PL trips. In fact, no team has scored fewer PL goals than Palace (22) this season, with Roy Hodgson’s men bagging a miserly average of 0.88 goals per league fixture.