- Brentford won one of their last eight home Premier League games
- Crystal Palace finished last season on a seven-game unbeaten run
- Recommended bet: Crystal Palace to win

Crystal Palace make the short hop across London to take on Brentford at the Gtech Stadium boasting a proud record of not having lost to the Bees in the Premier League.

These capital rivals produced five draws in their first five top-flight clashes before Palace snapped the sequence with a 3-1 win at Selhurst Park at the turn of the year.

They prepare to meet after mixed summers and with transfer speculation rife over a number of their star players.

Team news

Brentford are without their record signing, Igor Thiago, who is out for the rest of the year. It remains to be seen if Ivan Toney is still at the club to be involved.

Palace boss Oliver Glasner could hand debuts to Ismaila Sarr, Chadi Riad and Daichi Kamada. And he'll be hoping he can pick transfer-linked Marc Guehi, Joachim Andersen and Ebe Eze.

The stats

Five of the six Premier League meetings between these London rivals have ended in draws, Palace winning the most recent fixture 3-1 in December.

Brentford lost only two of their last nine matches in 2023/24, though have won only two of their last 12 home matches in all competitions.

The Eagles signed off last season by taking 19 points out of a possible 21 to finish tenth in the table.

Prediction

Predicting the starting line-ups is a battle in itself, never mind figuring out how the match maps out.

Both clubs have been dogged by transfer speculation throughout the summer and it's not going away.

What is certain is that Palace are having to rethink after the sale of Michael Olise to Bayern Munich, but they finished the season immaculately and most of Oliver Glasner's fast finishers are still at Selhurst Park.

He got them playing some nice stuff, they were unbeaten throughout the summer and they can welcome back Jean-Philippe Mateta back to lead the line after a fine summer with France at the Olympics.

Brentford, in contrast, have had a disappointing summer with too many goals conceded and an injury to record £30m signing Igor Thiago.

Thomas Frank won't compromise on the Brentford style but their home form wasn't the best as 2023/24 played out and that has to give Palace added hope.

Add to the argument the fact that Palace have never lost this fixture in the Premier League era and the visitors get the nod to land this opening weekend contest.

Back Crystal Palace to win at 37/20 with LiveScore Bet

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