CONFERENCE League semi-finalists Crystal Palace host survival seeking West Ham in Monday’s Premier League London derby.
The Eagles return home fresh after knocking out Fiorentina in the Conference League quarter-finals, despite losing 2-1 to the Italian side on Thursday.
Crystal Palace enter this game in 13th in the Premier League, with just 31 games played, the least in the league. A win tonight would move them up to 12th, above Fulham.
It looked as though West Ham might have been dropped back into the relegation zone on Saturday when rivals Tottenham led Brighton 2-1, but a Georginio Rutter stoppage time equaliser leaves the Hammers safe in 17th.
Their last game saw a merciless 4-0 win over Wolves, and now Nuno’s side now look to punish Tottenham’s slip up, and could move four points clear of the relegation zone.
When asked how it felt to finally see the Irons outside the bottom three, Nuno replied: “Nothing has changed really, as we still have six games to go and a lot of work to do.
“The big challenge that we have ahead of us is to sustain our level of performance, which is very hard. This is the big challenge, for the whole 90 minutes.”
Crystal Palace centre-back Chris Richards says Oliver Glasner’s side are improving as a result of their experiences in Europe, with a last-four tie against Shakhtar Donetsk to come.
“You have to sometimes adapt to different playing styles, different countries, how they play, different referees… Everything’s different to the Prem.” Richards said.
“It’s different things we have to learn, and it’s only experience that you can gain by playing in Europe, so every game, win, lose or draw was a learning experience.”
Team News
Crystal Palace: D. Henderson, C. Richards, M. Lacroix, J. Canvot, D. Muñoz, J. Lerma, W. Hughes, T. Mitchell, B. Johnson, Y. Pino, J. Strand Larsen
West Ham: M. Hermansen, K. Walker-Peters, K. Mavropanos, A. Disasi, E. Diouf, J. Bowen, M. Fernandes, T. Souček, C. Summerville, Pablo, V. Castellanos
