English Premier
2026-01-17 - Sunderland vs Crystal Palace
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 17th January 2025 - Kick Off 3pm
Sunderland
Despite a host of players leaving to take part in the African Cup of Nations, Sunderland have continued to dig in and put together a solid run of results. With the Premier League position being one that looks likely to end with another year in the top flight, Regis Le Bris can also take a strong approach to the FA Cup and Sunderland made it past Everton into the Fourth Round last weekend.
They are 10th in the Premier League table and 16 points clear of the bottom three, while some fans will still be hoping for Sunderland to finish the season in strong enough form to bring European Football to this part of the North East. Home form is going to be key for that and Sunderland have a 5-5-0 record at the Stadium of Light where they have scored 16 goals and conceded 8.
Sunderland may not have won any of the last 6 games played in all competitions in normal time, but 5 have ended in draws to display the resilience with which they continue to operate. The Black Cats have been held to consecutive home draws by Leeds United and Manchester City.
Bertrand Traore has returned from the African Cup of Nations with a knock, while a couple of other players are involved in the Semi Final of that competition. Reinildo and Brian Brobbey are hoping to be passed fit for the hosts.
Crystal Palace
The 2025 FA Cup run will be remembered fondly, but the Crystal Palace 2026 campaign will be also going down in history after they were dumped out of the competition in the Third Round by non-League Macclesfield. Some have labelled that as the biggest upset of all time, which is factually correct in terms of League places between those two clubs.
To say Oliver Glasner was unhappy would be an understatement and Crystal Palace have been in prolonged poor form as injuries have caught up with a small squad. Those coming in last weekend have not given the manager any reason to select them this week and Crystal Palace are 13th in the Premier League table, but with ambitions to get back towards the European places available.
Crystal Palace have not won any of the last 9 games played in all competitions and the 2-1 loss at Macclesfield may feel like the team have hit rock bottom. That result also means The Eagles have won none of the last 4 away games in all competitions and have been beaten 3 times in that run.
Nathaniel Clyne, Daniel Munoz and Eddie Nketiah are expected to miss out through injury, while Ismaila Sarr is still representing Senegal in the African Cup of Nations. Jefferson Lerma is expected to be available.
Head to Head
These teams played out a goalless draw at Selhurst Park earlier this season.
Crystal Palace are unbeaten in the last 5 visits to Sunderland.
The last meeting here was in September 2016 and Crystal Palace came from 2-0 behind to beat Sunderland 2-3.
Prediction
When these teams met in South London earlier in the season, there were already some signs of the kind of resilience that Sunderland were going to take into each and every game played.
With players beginning to return from the African Cup of Nations, Sunderland are looking to put together a strong second half of the campaign and potentially finish in the European places.
The FA Cup has become a real target too and this is a team that have made it very hard to be beaten.
Back in September, Crystal Palace were the stronger team on the day, but the form was also much better all around.
That is not the case in mid-January with Crystal Palace on a prolonged winless run and trying to bounce back from an absolutely humiliating defeat to Macclesfield in the FA Cup. Losing to non-League opposition would have hurt, but to defend the Cup won last May as poorly as that clearly upset the manager, whose own future is in doubt.
This uncertainty cannot be helping the players, especially with the squad stretched by injury, and Crystal Palace may struggle to avoid a defeat here.
Both teams have played out plenty of draws and that looks to be a real runner, but the slight edge may be with the home team.
Sunderland should be all the stronger for having players returning from international duty and they have been a team that have found a way to win games at home. Back to back draws here have slowed the momentum, but Sunderland do look the more likely to finish with the three points.
Backing The Black Cats on any 'Draw No Bet' market looks the right play even if the draw has a pretty high chance of coming in.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Sunderland 1-0 Crystal Palace
