Next Monday, 3rd of November 2014, Crystal Palace will go head-to-head with a fragilized Sunderland at Selhurst Park for round ten of the English Premier League, on a match that, given their current situation at the league table, both teams need to win.

Sunderland probably have not yet recovered from the 8-0 defeat Southampton inflicted on them two weeks ago. To make things even worst for them, the Black Cats had to play against Arsenal on the match that followed that embarrassing defeat and, as it was already known, they ended by losing that clash as well. The defeat against the Saints have clearly opened breaches in the team and if they lose to Crystal Palace next Monday, it could really mean the end of Gus Poyet’s era at the helm of Sunderland.

The Black Cats have only won one single league match from the nine they have already played this season and the team’s inconsistency is certainly worrying their avid supporters. Paolo Di Canio didn’t manage to offer Sunderland the stability a team needs at a demanding competition such as the EPL, but apparently Gus Poyet hasn’t neither. The Uruguayan manager has, let’s say, an interesting set of players, but for some reason he didn’t seem to able to take out the best from them and just one win in nine matches is really not good enough for a team such as Sunderland.

A win at Selhurst Park might be the lifeline the team needs to get back on track and stop everything from crumbling down until the point of no return; nevertheless, they will need to dig deep in order to bring the three points from that particular clash. For next Monday, Gus Poyet will probably not be able to count with the contribution of Fletcher, Coates, Alvarez and Giaccherini, since they are all currently sidelined due to injury.

As for the home side, Crystal Palace are also not going through a particularly pleasant moment at the EPL, as they have failed to win their last three matches. After a complicated season start with the sudden departure of Tony Pulis, the Eagles found a way to counter adversity and enjoyed a good period of four matches without a single defeat.

Last weekend, Crystal Palace snatched an important 2-2 draw from their visit to The Hawthorns and that point might boost their motivation levels for the match against the Black Cats next Monday.

Given both teams’ current circumstances, Crystal Palace are favourites for the upcoming clash, but, at the same time, it will be interesting to see if Gus Poyet still has something extra up his sleeve to boost his players’ motivation and restore the confidence levels they need to win the match.

Crystal Palace

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

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Sunderland

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LLWDL

Possible Line-ups

Crystal Palace (4-4-1-1) – Speroni - Ward - Mariappa - Hageland - Kelly - Jedinak - Zaha - Ledley - Bolasie - Chamakh - Campbell

Sunderland (4-1-4-1) – Mannone - Brown - Vergini - O’Shea - van Aanholt - Cattermole - Larsson - Johnson - Rodwell - Gomez - Wickham

Prediction

Crystal Palace 1 Sunderland 1