Brentford v Crystal Palace

Brentford vs Crystal Palace Preview

Last season marked Brentford's lowest league finish in the Premier League table in the three seasons that the London club have participated in the English top flight as The Bees ended up in a disappointing 16th place in the table, while Crystal Palace arguably exceeded expectations by claiming a top half finish as they ended up in 10th place and further progress could be on its way to Selhurst Park this term.

It became very much a season of false starts for Brentford under manager Thomas Frank as The Bees found themselves bereft of the attacking talents and goalscoring prowess of England striker Ivan Toney from the start of last season as he was suspended due to his involvement in sports betting.

Toney returned in mid-January with Brentford sitting alarmingly close to the relegation zone as The Bees occupied fifth from bottom and just three points above the bottom three clubs, but although league wins continued to be hard to come by in the top flight, Brentford managed to pick up five wins in their final 19 matches to secure their place in the Premier League for another season.

Brentford ended up in the same position as when Toney returned but the difference was that The Bees had accumulated a 13-point cushion thereafter, thanks to wins against Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Sheffield United, Luton Town and Bournemouth respectively.

However, results on home soil at their Gtech Community Stadium continued to be pretty inconsistent and disappointing as The Bees registered just two wins in their final 11 home games in the top tier.

Crystal Palace continue to make slow but steady progress in the Premier League as the Eagles achieved a top half finish of 10th place, building upon a 12th place finish under Patrick Vieira and a 11th place finish under former boss, Roy Hodgson.

Austrian manager Oliver Glasner took over from Roy Hodgson who stepped down as Eagles boss due to ill health and although Crystal Palace and Glasner managed to collect just one win from his opening six games in charge which came in the shape of a 3-0 home win against Burnley, losing three of these six games as well, the London club produced some sparkling form and results towards the end of last season's campaign.

Having managed to capture just one win from their preceding nine games then, Crystal Palace looked like they would be heading for a bitter relegation battle but an impressive seven-game unbeaten sequence transformed The Eagles' season as they picked up six wins within these seven games, which included wins on the road at Liverpool and Wolves.

Brentford v Crystal Palace Verdict

Crystal Palace are unbeaten in each of their last six meetings against Brentford and given the form they finished with last term, The Eagles look to have a decent chance here.

Therefore, our main bet will be Crystal Palace win @ 2.87

Other side bets worth considering:

Crystal Palace win & Under 2.5 goals @ 6.50

Correct Score: Crystal Palace 2-0 @ 17.00