EPL: Ighalo battles Adebayor at Palace

Crystal Palace vs. Watford
Venue: Selhurst Park
Kick off: 4pm

Crystal Palace new buy, Emmanuel Adebayor, is expected to lead the Eagles onslaught as they welcome Odion Ighalo and his Watford side to the Selhurst Park on Saturday (today).
The Eagles have dropped below the Hornets and into the bottom half of the table, although they would leapfrog their opponents again with a victory today.
It was not too long ago that Crystal Palace were being mentioned as possible European contenders this season, with the Champions League even being whispered in some quarters.
After all, a 2-1 victory at Stoke City in their final match before Christmas took the Eagles level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur and just three and four adrift of Manchester City and Arsenal respectively.
Alan Pardew will have known that top-four aspirations were perhaps overzealous, although he would not have been able to predict such a fall from grace for his side.
The win over the Potters remains their most recent Premier League triumph, with Palace now eight games without a victory in the top flight, scoring just three goals in that time to leave themselves equidistant between fifth place and the relegation zone.
It wasn’t until last weekend that they picked up their first point of 2016, becoming the last team in England’s top four divisions to claim a point this calendar year courtesy of a 1-1 draw with Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.
Scott Dann was the man to rescue the draw for Palace with his fifth goal of the season, and the Eagles have now scored more goals from defence than any other side in the Premier League.
It is a good job too, as none of Palace’s recognised strikers has yet scored a goal from open play this season.
Without the defence in such good goalscoring form, Palace could well be sucked into the relegation battle.
In many ways, comparisons can be drawn between Crystal Palace and Watford since the festive period.
On the same weekend that the Eagles moved level with fourth place, Watford picked up a fourth straight victory and were just one point behind the Champions League places, raising questions of an even more improbable top-four challenge than that of Palace.
Just as with Palace, however, that looks like being as good as it gets for the Hornets this season.
They have managed to pick up a win since Christmas, but only the one in their last eight league outings to see what was once a one-point gap grow to 14.
The main difference, of course, is that Watford would have gone into the season content to simply stay in the Premier League for a second year – something they have never achieved before.
The form book does not make great reading for Quique Flores right now, but this campaign has already surpassed all expectations, and the 10-point gap to the bottom three means that they can breathe easily.
They are just seven points short of the magic 40-point mark with 13 games of the season remaining.
The main reason behind that has been the form of Ighalo and Troy Deeney, who between them are responsible for 20 of the club’s 27 league goals this season.
Ighalo himself has opened the scoring in a match on six occasions this term, a tally only Jamie Vardy can beat.
Deeney was left out of the starting XI at White Hart Lane last weekend as Watford drew a blank for the second match in a row, losing 1-0 to in-form Tottenham Hotspur, but the skipper is expected to be back for this weekend’s game.
They may need him in order to end a goal drought away from home in the league that stretches back to Boxing Day, with Watford having lost their last three games on the road without scoring.
They had not lost back-to-back away games in the top-flight since 2007 before this current run, and with trips to Manchester United, West Ham United and Arsenal next up, this weekend may be their best chance to stop the rot.

Crystal Palace possible starting lineup: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare, Mutch, Jedinak, Zaha, Cabaye, Lee, Adebayor.
Watford possible starting lineup: Gomes, Nyom, Cathcart, Britos, Ake, Suarez, Watson, Capoue, Jurado, Deeney, Ighalo.