Crystal Palace vs West Ham preview: Wilfried Zaha available for hosts

Wilfried Zaha will be available for Crystal Palace to face West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday.

The forward was dismissed for sarcastically applauding referee Andre Marriner when he was booked against Southampton.

He has already missed one match, last week against Fulham, but Palace have appealed a further one-match ban and will not know the outcome until next week, meaning Zaha can play this weekend.

January signing Michy Batshuayi could make his first start after coming off the bench in the win over Fulham and setting up a goal.

"Michy's settled in very well, surprisingly well," said manager Roy Hodgson. "We have players who knew him already and many who speak French. So he's bonded quickly, not just with that group but with everybody at the club."

Marko Arnautovic will return to the West Ham squad after recovering from a foot injury sustained in the 3-0 Premier League defeat by Wolves last week.

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"Marko worked the complete week. It is good news, of course. He is a player who makes a difference and important for our team," said West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini.

"He needs to recover his best form after not playing and his last injury and I hope he will be an important player for the remainder of the season."

West Ham have lost three of their last four matches in all competitions.

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Team news

Samir Nasri is still missing for West Ham with a slight calf injury while Jack Wilshere, Fabian Balbuena, Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini, Winston Reid, Andre Silva and Carlos Sanchez remain sidelined.

Lanzini is closing in on a long-awaited comeback from injury and has been pencilled in for a return against Fulham on February 22.

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Palace are without Cheikhou Kouyate, goalkeeper Julian Speroni, Pape Souare, Connor Wickham and James Tomkins.

Opta stats

• Crystal Palace are winless in their last seven Premier League encounters with West Ham United (D3 L4).
• West Ham have won three of their last four away games against Crystal Palace in all competitions (D1), as many as they'd mustered in their previous 12 (W3 D6 L3).
• West Ham have won their last three Premier League London derbies, with the first victory in this run starting against Crystal Palace in December. The Hammers haven't won four consecutive such matches since February 1996.
• Crystal Palace have lost 54.84 per cent of their Premier League London derbies (51/93), the highest ratio in the division. However, West Ham have lost the highest total number of such matches in the competitions (96).
• Having picked up just two points from their first 18 available at home in the Premier League this season (W0 D2 L4), Crystal Palace have won 10 from their last 18 available at Selhurst Park (W3 D1 L2).
• West Ham have lost their last three away Premier League games by an aggregate score of 0-7. They last lost four in a row on the road while also failing to score back in December 2006 (a run of seven).
• Crystal Palace have scored the fewest (3) and conceded the joint-fewest (3, level with Liverpool) Premier League goals in the opening 30 minutes of matches this season.
• With 15 penalty goals in 75 Premier League appearances, Crystal Palace midfielder Luka Milivojevic scores a penalty on average once every five games - more frequently than any other player in the history of the competition (minimum 50 games).
• West Ham's Robert Snodgrass has been directly involved in three goals in his last two Premier League appearances against Crystal Palace (2 goals, 1 assist), including netting in the reverse fixture in December (3-2 win).
• Thirty per cent of West Ham's Michail Antonio's Premier League assists (3/10) came in one game against Crystal Palace, setting up all three of the Hammers' goals in a 3-0 home win in January 2017.

Merson's predictions

You never know what you are going to get from West Ham, this is not a massive game. You watched them against Liverpool on MNF and think, 'How can this team get beaten and concede four to Wimbledon?' You really have to ask some serious questions about what is going on there, they were a completely different team. No disrespect to Wimbledon, but you should not be letting in four goals against a side bottom of League One. And then you play against a team like Liverpool with their front three and they never really looked like scoring.

MERSE PREDICTS: 1-0 (13/2 with Sky Bet)

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