Crystal Palace vs Ipswich Prediction: Eagles to soar at home

Crystal Palace will look to Eddie Nketiah to fill Jean-Philippe Mateta’s boots when they return to Premier League action against struggling Ipswich on Saturday.

The Eagles will be without their leading scorer for several weeks because he required 25 stitches to a wound on his left ear after being kicked by Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts in the FA Cup last week. Oliver Glasner will pin his side’s goalscoring hopes on former Arsenal forward Nketiah in a bid to maintain Palace’s superb recent run that has seen them win eight of their last 10 games in all competitions.

Below you can find my Crystal Palace vs Ipswich predictions.

Ipswich’s trip to Selhurst Park comes five days after their heartbreaking cup exit to Nottingham Forest via a penalty shoot-out.

Head coach Kieran McKenna has a number of players missing through injury too and spoke of trying to remain competitive during this “tricky period”.

Team news

Nketiah looks nailed on to replace Mateta in attack amid a raft of Palace changes from the Millwall cup tie with goalkeeper Dean Henderson, left wing-back Tyrick Mitchell and midfielder Adam Wharton all set to return to the line-up.

Axel Tuanzebe has joined Sammie Szmodics, Wes Burns, Chiedoze Ogbene, Julio Enciso and Omari Hutchinson on the Ipswich casualty list while Cameron Burgess is being assessed for a knock he sustained at the City Ground. 

On-loan midfielder Kalvin Phillips, who missed the Forest game, has trained this week but Conor Chaplin is still working his way back to full fitness

Crystal Palace vs Ipswich Odds

Crystal Palace are 1/2 favourites to take all three points, giving them a 66.7% implied chance of winning according to the odds. Visitors Ipswich are available at 6/1 and the draw is priced at 7/2.

Over 2.5 goals is on offer at 8/11, with 11/10 the quote for under 2.5, while it's 10/11 that both teams score in the match and 10/11 that at least one team fails to get on the scoresheet.

Crystal Palace -1 @ 13/10

Only Liverpool have taken more points than Palace in the last two months, making Glasner’s side one of the form teams of the Premier League.

The opposite is true of Ipswich, who have garnered just two points from their last eight games.

Worryingly for McKenna, his side have taken some heavy beatings in that period — including a 6-0 home defeat to Manchester City and 4-1 losses against Liverpool and Tottenham.

They have been overrun in midfield and cracked when put under pressure at the back, leading to several occasions where they have conceded twice in the space of a few minutes.

That happened twice against City, twice at Spurs and again on their last away trip to Old Trafford.

Palace will prey on any weaknesses in Town’s structure and mentality, making them a good bet to win the game by more than one goal.

The Eagles have covered a -1 goal handicap in five of their last seven Premier League games and seven of their last nine in all competitions. 

Crystal Palace to score in both halves @ 6/5 

Glasner’s side have scored in both halves in five of their last eight games and there should be chances for them to bag before and after the break at Selhurst Park again.

Despite the absence of Mateta, who has registered more than a third of their Premier League goals this term, they still possess plenty of scoring threats.

Ismaila Sarr and Eberechi Eze are not far behind Mateta in terms of (non-penalty) expected goals while Palace’s attack have forced two of their last five opponents to put the ball in the back of their own net. 

Ipswich contributed to their downfall against 10-man Man Utd with an own goal, so watch out for something like that again.

But backing Palace to bag in each half looks a better bet given Ipswich have conceded either side of the interval in five of their last six Premier League games.

Daniel Munoz anytime goalscorer @ 9/2

Crystal Palace’s Colombian wing-back Daniel Munoz arrived at Selhurst Park with a reputation as a goalscorer after hitting seven goals in the first half of last season at Racing Genk.

It took him 31 games to grab his first for the Eagles but the South American has not looked back, hitting five in his last 17 appearances for the club.

Munoz has scored three times in Palace’s last five games and appears to be in a purple patch that makes his odds for another look appealing against a team conceding more than two goals per game on average. 

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