Two sides who will have ambitions of top half finishes this season meet on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League as Brentford host Crystal Palace in the capital.

All four Premier League meetings between these two sides have ended in draws, but there’s good reason to believe the quartet of stalemates will be broken this time around. 

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Brentford will obviously be without Ivan Toney who is suspended until January but aside from that, Thomas Frank has a fully fit squad to choose from. Mathias Jensen recovered from a thigh issue to start against Fulham and the Bees are flying without their star man. 

For Crystal Palace, they welcome back Michael Olise after he missed the Arsenal defeat with an injury. He joined in training again this week and this will be his first appearance since he signed his new contract with the Eagles. However, Will Hughes and Matheus Franca are likely to miss out again. 

Brentford to win to nil 

Brentford enjoyed a handsome 3-0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage last time out and there’s good reason to believe they could pull off a similar result here. The Bees have found the solution to their missing man, with Yoanne Wissa starting down the middle, Bryan Mbeumo threatening from the right and Kevin Schade given the nod on the left wing. 

This trio, supported by others, produced the goods against Fulham and they have what it takes to turn up on home soil. Brentford are EVS to win the game outright, but the 11/5 on them to win to nil is far better value when you consider Crystal Palace’s lack of threat in front of goal. 

Olise’s return will help them out, but so far they have missed Wilfried Zaha. They only scored once at Bramall Lane despite dominating the Blades and having eight shots on target, while they only mustered two attempts on goal against ten-man Arsenal. They boast plenty of creativity but have so far lacked the cutting edge in front of goal, as Odsonne Edouard leads the line. 

Bryan Mbeumo to score twice

Although Wissa is now the nominal number nine, it was Mbeumo who scored twice against Fulham. Importantly, he seems to be free to play where he wants, with his starting position on the right wing only the starting point for his attacking runs. 

The reason we’ve gone for him over Wissa is due to two things. Firstly, his large volume of shots. He’s had six shots in two matches so far this season, with five of those ending on target. Also, he is now the penalty taker in Toney’s absence and has already converted twice from the spot this campaign. 

With referee’s seemingly giving more penalties than ever, and Mbeumo immense from the spot, he feels like the sensible one to back at 12/1, in a match we are expecting the home side to win.