Crystal Palace v West Brom teams
The starting line-ups for our one top-flight fixture are these. Just the one change, with West Brom sticking with the side that drew with Newcastle last week while Zaha comes back into Palace’s starting XI with Townsend dropping to the bench:
Crystal Palace: Guaita, Ward, Kouyate, Cahill, Van Aanholt, Zaha, Milivojevic, Riedewald, Eze, Benteke, Ayew. Subs: Butland, Dann, Townsend, Mateta, Schlupp, Wickham, Batshuayi, Kelly, Hannam.
West Brom: Johnstone, Furlong, O’Shea, Bartley, Townsend, Yokuslu, Matheus Pereira, Gallagher, Maitland-Niles, Phillips, Diagne. Subs: Robson-Kanu, Ajayi, Robinson, Livermore, Diangana, Peltier, Snodgrass, Button, Ahearne-Grant.
Referee: Simon Hooper.
Preamble
The weekly Saturday afternoon soccer smorgasbord brings just the one Premier League game today, with West Brom’s survival hopes very badly needing a three-point transfusion of optimism at Crystal Palace. Elsewhere Cardiff (six wins and two draws in their last eight games) host Watford (six wins and one draw in their last eight games) in a clash of two of the Championship’s most in-form teams (the actual No1 in-form team, Barnsley, have seven wins and a draw in their last eight, and travel to Bournemouth). The best of the League One games is towards the bottom, with Bristol Rovers in 19th hosting Wimbledon in 23rd – the Dons would overtake Rovers if they win by three or more goals – while League Two leaders Cheltenham head to Exeter in eighth – there are only six points between them, and Exeter have a game in hand. Bolton are the in-form team in that division, and they can extend their current run (eight wins and no defeats in their last 10, since you ask) at struggling Port Vale.
Today’s English football league fixtures in full:
Premier League
Crystal Palace v West Brom
Everton v Burnley (5.30pm)
Fulham v Man City (8pm)
Leeds v Chelsea (12.30pm)
Championship
Birmingham v Bristol City
Bournemouth v Barnsley
Cardiff v Watford
Derby v Millwall
Luton v Swansea (12.15pm)
Middlesbrough v Stoke
Nottm Forest v Reading
QPR v Huddersfield
Rotherham v Coventry (postponed because of Covid outbreak at Rotherham)
Wycombe v Preston North End
League One
Blackpool v Fleetwood Town
Bristol Rovers v Wimbledon
Charlton v Shrewsbury
Crewe v Burton Albion
Doncaster v Northampton
Hull v Oxford Utd
Ipswich v Plymouth
Lincoln City v Rochdale
Milton Keynes Dons v Accrington Stanley
Swindon v Gillingham (1pm)
League Two
Carlisle v Bradford
Crawley Town v Mansfield
Exeter v Cheltenham
Forest Green v Harrogate Town
Grimsby v Colchester (5.30pm)
Leyton Orient v Scunthorpe (1pm)
Morecambe v Newport County
Oldham v Cambridge Utd
Port Vale v Bolton
Southend v Stevenage
Papa John’s Trophy Final
Portsmouth v Salford City
Updated