Premier League: Crystal Palace v Cardiff City match preview

A look ahead to this weekend’s Premier League fixture at Selhurst Park

Marouane Chamakh finally finds the back of the net for Crystal Palace (Getty Images)

Crystal Palace host Cardiff City at Selhurst Park on the back of their morale boosting win against West Ham United in midweek. The win from Palace lifted them off the bottom of the table and level on points with 18th place Fulham. Cardiff City haven’t won in their past four Premier League matches and the Welsh side will be looking nervously over their shoulder as a loss at the weekend will leave them only one point clear of the relegation zone.

Palace manager Tony Pulis got off to the perfect home start as his side secured a valuable 1-0 win, ending their four game winless run at Selhurst Park. Marouane Chamakh scored the only goal of the game against his former club and Pulis will be hoping he can regain the form that made him one of the hottest properties in the French league. Yannick Bolasie will continue to be missing for the home side through suspension, meaning Pulis may opt for the same side that defeated West Ham on Tuesday night.

Cardiff have been in a poor run of form of late after failing to secure consistency both home and away from Cardiff City stadium. Worryingly for Cardiff manager, Malky MacKay, his side have failed to score in their past three games away from home, and against Stoke on Wednesday night, they failed to display much attacking intent.

KICK-OFF:Saturday, 3.00pm

PAST MEETINGS:

Cardiff 2 (Noone, Gunnarsson) Crystal Palace (Jedinak), Championship, December 2012

Crystal Palace 3 (Murray 3) Cardiff 2 (Gunnarsson, Cowie), Championship, September 2012

Crystal Palace 1 (Zaha) Cardiff 2 (Whittingham, Cowie), Championship, April 2012

STATS:

Crystal Palace have failed to score more than one goal in their last five home games (W1 D1 L3)

Cardiff haven’t scored away from home in their last three league games

Crystal Palace have scored the least amount of goals in the Premier League so far

Cardiff have only won once away from home so far this season

ODDS:

Crystal Palace to win: 2.70

Cardiff to win: 2.75

Draw: 3.10

TV: Highlights on BBC One on Match of the Day at 10.20pm