There has been much speculation ahead of West Ham’s visit to Selhurst Park as to how the home side will approach this fixture after a big Thursday night victory in Europe. Oliver Glasner apparently gave his Crystal Palace side permission to head out on the town and celebrate after booking their place in the semi-finals.
Palace are safe this season without any real league ambition – so it will be interesting to see how their side approach this do-or die (for the away side) Hammers encounter. 42 points means they are ‘betwixt and between’ with little to play for other than pride on the domestic front. Which might well feed through to their squad selection.
West Ham fans would love another Jarrod Bowen master class at Selhurst Park
Eagle eyed fans (‘scuse the pun) might have seen Oliver Glazer’s words on the official Crystal Palace web site betray more than a hint of his priorities:
“We will always see how the players are recovering. If players are still fatigued, it’s better to play ones who are fresh.
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“You need to be 100% fit to be competitive in the Premier League. As soon as we have a feeling maybe a player is just 95%, another one will play and now we have better depth in the squad. At the moment we don’t have a lot of injuries so this gives us the opportunity to make more changes if necessary.”
And in a sideways reference to Premier League ambitions, the soon to depart Eagles manager admitted:
“We stopped a few weeks ago, or maybe months, talking about league positions.”
All of which sounds good and lovely but certainly won’t be meaning that the south London side roll over and allow West Ham to stroll past them in what is, after all a usually hotly-contested London derby. The opposite could of course be true if the Eagles suddenly decide to play with flair and a lack of fear for their under-pressure east London opponents.
It does look like, at least, Glasner will be rotating several of his Thursday night winners onto the bench. Which might help the Hammers tip the scales in their favour.
Crystal Palace v West Ham United, Monday night, 8pm kick off Sky Sports