Crystal Palace vs Everton: Preview, Form Analysis and Predicted Score for PL Round 36
Crystal Palace host Everton at Selhurst Park in a Round 36 clash that pits two struggling sides against each other — with the Eagles slight favourites on home soil.
Selhurst Park has rarely felt so uncertain heading into a Premier League Sunday afternoon. Crystal Palace welcome Everton in Round 36 carrying the wounds of back-to-back heavy defeats, while the visitors arrive in their own state of flux — unbeaten in two but without a league win since mid-March.
Form Analysis
The past month has been unkind to Oliver Glasner's side. A 3-1 reverse at Anfield was uncomfortable enough, but the 3-0 dismantling at Bournemouth last weekend left real questions about defensive solidity on the road — and, increasingly, everywhere. Their only bright spot in recent weeks was a confident 2-1 home victory over Newcastle in mid-April, which remains their sole win in four. A goalless draw at home to West Ham before that only deepened concerns about their attacking output at Selhurst Park.
Everton's shape is only marginally more coherent. Sean Dyche's men did produce one of the results of the season when they beat Chelsea 3-0 at Goodison, but that was back in late March. Since then, it has been a sequence of draws and defeats: 2-2 at Brentford, a 1-2 home loss to Liverpool, a 2-1 defeat at West Ham, and then an extraordinary 3-3 draw against Manchester City last Monday. That game encapsulates an Everton side capable of great theatre but questionable consistency — conceding three at home to a City side who were themselves not at their best.
Key Players
For Palace, the onus will fall on whoever leads the line to provide the energy and threat that was so absent at the Vitality Stadium. Their 2-1 win over Newcastle showed they can manufacture a result at Selhurst Park when the intensity is right, and home advantage has historically been their most reliable currency.
Everton's going forward does carry menace — they scored three against both Chelsea and Manchester City in recent weeks — but their defensive record raises flags. They have kept just one clean sheet in their last five matches, and a Palace side pressing on home turf could exploit exactly the kind of transitions that exposed Dyche's backline against City.
The over 2.5 goals market is priced right on the cusp at 50%, and with both teams to score sitting at 58% probability, this has the hallmarks of an open, if slightly anxious, encounter. Neither goalkeeper should expect an afternoon off.
Prediction
This is a match where both teams have legitimate reasons for concern, and neither arrives with genuine momentum. The AI model gives Crystal Palace a 38% probability of victory against Everton's 30%, with the draw holding at 30% — a tightly bunched set of outcomes that reflects just how evenly matched these two mid-table sides are right now.
The predicted score of 2-1 to the hosts, returned at 42/100 confidence, feels fair. Palace have shown they can win at home, as the Newcastle result demonstrated. Everton's tendency to ship goals — and their patchy away record, with a loss at West Ham the most recent evidence — tips the balance slightly in favour of Glasner's side. Selhurst Park is not the fortress it once was, but on Sunday it should be enough.
Predicted score: Crystal Palace 2-1 Everton