Preview
Friday night football returns to the Premier League this weekend, with Everton and Crystal Palace the two sides facing off under the bright lights this time around. For Everton, this is a vital match in their season as they look to bounce back from their first league defeat, which they suffered away at Bournemouth last time out. Crystal Palace, meanwhile, will look to continue their recent good form as they aim for a fourth consecutive league win. This one is predicted to be exciting, especially with plenty of betting opportunities available.
Everton v Crystal Palace Tips
Prediction: Everton won’t win this one
When Alan Pardew’s teams are on a hot streak, those purple patches tend to last a while. As such, it’s difficult to see Everton stopping this on-form team that is finding all kinds of ways to win. Three weeks ago Palace edged a back and forth duel with Middlebrough, taking the lead twice. Then two weeks ago they destroyed Stoke by racing into a 4-0 lead. Last week it looked like they had been sussed out, but they showed incredible spirit to fight back from 2-0 down to defeat Sunderland 3-2.
That bet would have been successful on Palace’s last three trips to Goodison Park, where they drew 1-1 and won 3-2 twice.
Betting tips: Both teams will score in the first half
Both these teams have scored and conceded a lot of goals so far this Premier League season, with a large proportion of those goals having come in the first half. In the six matches Everton have played so far this season there have been 1.33 goals scored in the first halves, while in Crystal Palace’s half a dozen games there has been one goal on average scored before the break.
Given that this scenario has happened in two of Everton’s home matches so far this season, it would be nothing new for both teams to score in the first half on Friday. Furthermore, the fact that 50% of Everton’s goals this season have been scored in the first halves of matches and the fact that 75% of their goals conceded have been scored before the interval makes this a particularly intriguing prediction.