Crystal Palace vs Swansea City. Premier League.
Selhurst ParkAttendance23,477.
Saturday 26 August 2017 13:55, UK
Frank de Boer says it is already "must-win" time for Crystal Palace when they host Swansea on Saturday.
Palace are yet to score in the Premier League this season after losing 3-0 at home to newly-promoted Huddersfield and then 1-0 at Liverpool.
"We expected points against Huddersfield, you want three points. It was a very bad result for us," said De Boer, who took over from Sam Allardyce in the summer.
"We learned from it, we showed a different spirit and composure against Liverpool. We could have got a point. I was pleased with the performance, of course not the result. If we continue with this spirit the points will come. Swansea is a must win."
De Boer did pick up his first victory as manager in midweek as Palace beat Ipswich in the Carabao Cup.
Swansea also got off the mark in the cup, beating MK Dons 4-1, after taking just a point from their opening two Premier League matches.
They failed to muster a single shot on target in their two league matches, and manager Paul Clement said: "In all our games last year, there wasn't one where I thought afterwards that we'd created loads of chances. But the games we won were the ones where we were clinical.
"That's what you have to be when you are playing against well-organised teams who are hard to break down."
Ruben Loftus-Cheek misses out for Crystal Palace with a groin injury and Wilfried Zaha is also unavailable due to a knee injury he suffered in the defeat to Huddersfield.
Midfielder James McArthur is pushing for his first league start of the season after scoring twice in the Carabao Cup victory over Ipswich.
Sam Clucas could go straight into the Swansea team following his £15m move from Hull.
Skipper Leon Britton is also available after a back injury forced him out of the last two games against Manchester United and MK Dons.
But Kyle Bartley (knee ligaments) has joined a casualty list which includes Fernando Llorente (arm), Nathan Dyer (Achilles) and Ki Sung-yueng (knee).
There were 12 goals scored in the two Premier League games between these two sides last season; the highest scoring PL fixture in 2016-17.
Swansea have lost just one of their last 12 league meetings with Crystal Palace (W6 D5 L1); this came at Selhurst Park in May 2015 (0-1).
Swansea have failed to score in their opening two Premier League matches of 2017-18 and are yet to attempt a single shot on target.
Tammy Abraham hasn't registered a shot on target in the Premier League yet (163 mins), however and overall in league football he hasn't found the target with a shot in any of his last four appearances (334 mins).
Wilfried Zaha scored in both of Crystal Palace's Premier League matches against Swansea City in 2016-17, but ended up on the losing side in each match.
Frank de Boer has lost his opening two Premier League games in charge of Crystal Palace - the only Dutch manager to lose his first three games in the competition is Martin Jol (who won his fourth).
We're only two games into the season and this is already a big game for these clubs. Swansea's 4-0 defeat to Manchester United may have flattered their opponents, but I fancy Palace here. Swansea try and play out from the back too much with players that aren't capable of doing so. Against a Palace side, who will have taken positives from their battling defeat at Liverpool, I see them coming up short.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-0 (5/1 with Sky Bet)
Crystal Palace are marginally odds-on with Sky Bet at 10/11 as Swansea go up against odds of 29/10 for the win and 5/2 to secure a draw. Both sides have been shortened in the relegation at 11/4 and 6/4 respectively following the goalless starts, while both to fail to score again is a 17/2 chance. Christian Benteke heads the first goalscorer betting, with Tammy Abraham considered the visitors' main threat at 6/1 to net first.
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