Crystal Palace differentials offering form and fixtures

Roy Hodgon’s Crystal Palace side and their legion of potential differentials were victorious on the road once again in Gameweek 29.

They have now won their last two away matches in a season that has seen them do better on their travels than at home.

61% of their points have come away from Selhurst Park in 2018/19 but the form of their attacking assets has attracted our attention for their next two Premier League outings.

Brighton and Huddersfield are the next two sides to travel to Crystal Palace, either side of Blank Gameweek 31, and a double could be added in Gameweek 32, all of which certainly boosts their credentials.

We’ve taken a look at their best players in this latest Scout Notes article…

Burnley 1-3 Crystal Palace

Goals: Ashley Barnes (£5.7m) | Michy Batshuayi (£6.5m), Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m)

Own Goals: Phil Bardsley (£4.2m)

Assists: Ashley Westwood (£4.6m) | Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m), Cheikhou Kouyaté (£4.7m)

Michy Batshuayi (£6.5m) continues to make a strong case as a differential option after he scored his second Crystal Palace goal at Burnley on Saturday. The Belgian only had two shots at Turf Moor but is comparing favourably to the rest of the league for goal threat over the last four Gameweeks. In that time, only seven players have shot more often than Batshuayi. As he has only recently established himself as a regular for the Eagles, he has played just 277 minutes in the last four, which means his minutes per chance of 23.1 is better than popular options such as Mohamed Salah (£13.5m) and Raúl Jiménez (£6.9m).

“That’s his second goal and it was a really good goal. The second goal was an excellent one and there was maybe as many as a half dozen moves towards the end the game where had we been able to finish it off we would have been up there for goal of the season contendership.” – Roy Hodgson

Owned by 13.1%, Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) is much less of a differential option but in much the same vein of form as colleague Batshuayi. His late goal at Burnley was his fifth in as many starts for Crystal Palace as Roy Hodgson’s plan to get more goals from the Ivory Coast international appears to be coming to fruition. Similar to Batshuayi, it was just one effort for Zaha at Turf Moor, from which he scored, but in the last four Gameweeks, he is joint-second in the whole league for shots on target. With those appealing fixtures on the horizon, there is definitely a case to be made for owning Zaha.

“Wilf was good. Wilf is always good. He’s in good form at the moment, he’s a dangerous player to have to mark if you’re a defender when he gets the ball because he’s an extremely good dribbler. Not only dribbling skills he’s got strength to add to that. At the moment he’s in good goalscoring form and he promised me some time ago that he would score five goals before the end of the season – this was about two or three weeks ago – and I think he’s already got those five. We’re going to up that total now, we’re going to double it, I hope he’s going to get 10.” – Roy Hodgson

Also of interest is FPL defender Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m) who now has assists in each of the last three Gameweeks. Our attention was initially drawn to the former Leicester City man over the summer when he looked set for a regular run in the Palace midfield but he is back on our radars once again. Schlupp started the last four prior to the Turf Moor trip as a part of a central midfield trio but was deployed as a left winger in Gameweek 29. That helped him finish as Palace’s joint-top creator against Burnley and in the last four Gameweeks, Luka Milivojevic (£6.3m) is Schlupp’s only colleague to have played more key passes, but with 11 fewer touches in the penalty box.

One of the more popular options in Palace’s ranks got involved in the goals in this win too. Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m), back in the side after missing two matches with a hamstring issue, provided the assist for Batshuayi’s goal. However, expecting the right-back to registering attacking returns on a regular basis would be a tad naïve. This was just Wan-Bissaka’s second assist of the season, and the pass for it was his only chance created in the last four Gameweeks.

Hodgson will be delighted to have secured the win at Burnley despite rotating his side, something he does not regularly do. Influenced by Gameweek 29’s close proximity to Gameweek 28, Andros Townsend (£5.9m) and James McArthur (£4.8m) both dropped to the bench for the first time all season. Meanwhile, Scott Dann (£4.4m) came in for Martin Kelly (£3.9m) in what was his first start since New Year’s Day 2017.

“It was rotation. It was a third game in a week and not just any games, we had to go to Leicester that was a tough game and a good victory. We played Manchester United at home and now we came to Turf Moor. When you have got players like Max Meyer who hasn’t started or Kouyate who hasn’t started for a while, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and the goalkeeper Hennessey, you’ve got these type of players you can put it and give players like James McArthur and Andros Townsend a bit of a rest it seemed to be the right thing to do.” – Roy Hodgson

Max Meyer (£5.5m) and Cheikhou Kouyaté (£4.7m) also came into the side with the latter earning plenty of praise from Hodgson. He played two key passes against Burnley, one of them ending up as an assist.

“(Asked if this was Kouyaté’s best performance for Crystal Palace) Certainly. I think he’s had one or two good ones. Cheikhou Kouyate is one of those players that you have to watch closely to realise all the good work he does because he’s not necessarily eye-catching in the same way that some players are. But he was put in there to do a certain job today for and he did it extremely well.” – Roy Hodgson

Owners of Vicente Guaita (£4.2m) were a little concerned to see him drop to the bench against Burnley. He had started the last five in a row following his comeback from injury but was replaced by Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) in Gameweek 29. Hodgson explained that the Welsh international was brought in specifically for his height, considering Burnley’s tendency to play high balls into the box. While he did not provide much information on who would play in goal against Brighton, it does look as if Guaita’s absence was tactical rather than an indication of him losing favour.

“When it came to the goalkeeper [Wayne] was unlucky to lose his place in the instance but of course today we knew there would be a lot of high balls coming into the box and we thought maybe he would be the one most adept to deal with it.” – Roy Hodgson

On the other side of Palace’s victory was a second consecutive defeat for Burnley. Despite that unwelcome statistic, there was another goal for the in-form Ashley Barnes (£5.7m). The forward has now been involved in six goals in as many Premier League outings, which is as many as he had managed in his previous 25. Not surprisingly, he was the top shooter at Turf Moor on Saturday but his accuracy was lower than usual. Over the last four Gameweeks, there are now nine players with more shots on target than Barnes, which represents a bit of a drop-off for him. That may be a timely change for his owners looking to bench him the Gameweek 30 trip to Liverpool’s Anfield.

Burnley themselves did not play too badly against Crystal Palace registering 18 goal attempts against the Eagles. That was their highest shot count in one match this season, which also made for a superior expected goals score than Palace.

“It’s a strong performance with 18 efforts at goal, lots of the ball and numerous crossing attempts, but those final moments are the key. They found them and credit to them for that. We didn’t and we had enough of them. In the first half, I felt we dominated the feel of the game and knocked on their door. They go and get a ricochet goal and I was actually quite happy at half time because there wasn’t a lot wrong. It was just the tiny details and as we all know they are so important.” – Sean Dyche

Burnley’s midfield options continue to show some promise, which will be important for anyone looking build a squad for both Blank Gameweeks. Ashley Westwood (£4.6m) was back in the side against Palace after missing Gameweek 28 with a virus, and his four chances created led to an assist. Meanwhile, Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.5m) was just one key pass behind his colleague despite coming on at half-time.

Burnley’s defence is still some way off the stable back-line it was last season. They have just two clean sheets since Tom Heaton‘s (£4.8m) return in Gameweek 20 and have conceded an average of 1.2 goals per game in that time. There was some initial improvement as the former Manchester United goalkeeper kept both of those clean sheets within four Gameweeks of his return and between Gameweeks 20 and 27, the Clarets had been breached seven times, an average of 0.88 per match. But in the last two outings Burnley have conceded five times to supposedly favourable opposition in Newcastle and Crystal Palace, which could bode well for Liverpool assets at Anfield in Gameweek 30..

Burnley XI (4-4-2): Heaton; Taylor, Mee, Tarkowski, Bardsley; McNeil (Brady 72′), Cork, Westwood, Hendrick (Gudmundsson 45′); Wood (Crouch 81′), Barnes.

Crystal Palace XI (4-5-1): Hennessey; van Aanholt, Dann, Tomkins, Wan-Bissaka; Schlupp, Meyer (McArthur 71′), Milivojević, Kouyaté, Zaha (Townsend 79′); Batshuayi (Benteke 83′).