Crystal Palace vs Brentford

Crystal Palace will launch their home Premier League campaign this weekend as they entertain newly-promoted Brentford at Selhurst Park.

A humiliating 3-0 defeat away to Chelsea marked Patrick Vieira’s competitive managerial debut at Crystal Palace, as the Frenchman stares at the prospect of becoming the team’s fourth consecutive manager to fail to win his opening three Premier League matches at the helm. Moreover, the ‘Eagles’ have claimed just one victory in their eight opening top-flight games at Selhurst Park since returning to the Premier League (W1, D1, L6), doing so in 2015 under Alan Pardew. Although this will be their first top-flight encounter against Brentford, a return of zero wins from Palace’s last nine London derbies (D4, L5) is pretty much concerning. On the brighter note, the London outfit avoided defeat in all three home fixtures against newly-promoted sides last season (W2, D1).

Meanwhile, Brentford’s debut Premier League campaign got off to an unexpected flyer, with the visitors securing an impressive 2-0 victory over Arsenal on home turf. After defying the odds against fellow London rivals on Matchday 1, the ‘Bees’ could make history, as a triumph here would see them become just the third of the last 18 Premier League debutants to win their first away match in the competition. Despite playing against second-tier opponents, Brentford finished the 2020/21 Championship campaign on an eye-catching 12-match unbeaten league streak (regular season only – W6, D6). However, they have picked up just two wins in their last 12 London derbies away from home (D5, L5). Even though they lost their most recent league meeting with Palace 1-0, it’s worth noting that they last faced this opposition in January 1964.