Crystal Palace seek to end a three-match Premier League losing run, their longest for 14 months, on Thursday (17:30 GMT) when they host an in-form Fulham side who have kept a clean sheet in each of their past four top-flight visits to Selhurst Park. Sunday's defeat by Spurs encapsulated where it's going wrong for Palace of late, as their manager Oliver Glasner is well aware. While the expected goals metric is given greater credence by some than others, it does lay bare Palace's attacking shortcomings this season.
Crystal Palace seek to end a three-match Premier League losing run, their longest for 14 months, on Thursday (17:30 GMT) when they host an in-form Fulham side who have kept a clean sheet in each of their past four top-flight visits to Selhurst Park.
Problems for Palace at both ends of the pitch
Sunday's defeat by Spurs encapsulated where it's going wrong for Palace of late, as their manager Oliver Glasner is well aware.
"We created enough to score goals but miss all our chances and get punished by a corner, a set-play," he lamented soon after the final whistle. "We need to get this fixed."
While the expected goals metric is given greater credence by some than others, it does lay bare Palace's attacking shortcomings this season. They would reasonably have been expected to score 29 league goals so far based on the quality of chances created; their actual tally of 21 goals equates to by far the biggest underperformance in the division.
Jean-Philippe Mateta was the Premier League's second highest scorer in 2025 with 17 goals, but the only one of those to come in his last eight top-flight games was a penalty. The absence of dynamic duo Ismaila Sarr and Daniel Munoz on the right-hand side has been keenly felt, prompting Palace to make a £35m move for Tottenham's Brennan Johnson.
At the other end of the pitch, the Eagles are suffering from the yips when it comes to defending set-pieces. Eight of the nine most recent goals they have conceded in all competitions, including each of the past seven, have come from dead-ball situations: four corners, two throw-ins, one penalty and a direct free kick.
In the Premier League this season, 60% of their goals conceded are from set-pieces – the highest proportion in the division prior to the latest round of matches.
A favoured fixture for Fulham
A third successive win last weekend propelled Fulham into the top half of the table for the first time in three months. They're vying to equal the club record of four Premier League victories in a row, set three years ago.
Marco Silva's side have made the most of a run of fixtures against teams struggling near the bottom and will now look to prolong Palace's misery, both of late and in this specific fixture.
Fulham have two wins and two draws from their last four away league games against the Eagles, all without conceding a goal. They've never kept five successive clean sheets away to the same club in their league history.
Furthermore, Palace's late winner in December's reverse fixture means the away team is unbeaten in each of the past nine Premier League meetings between the sides since the Eagles triumphed 2-0 at Selhurst Park in February 2019.
In total, 80% of their Premier League encounters overall have ended in an away win or draw, the joint-second highest figure among fixtures to have been played at least 15 times.
Category: General Sports
