Palace (a) Preview

Match Details:

Match: #5810

Season: 2025-26

Matchday: #28

League Game: #21

Manager Game: #168

Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2026

Venue: Selhurst Park

Kick off: 7.30pm

Manager: Unai Emery | 🇪🇸 | Hondarribia, 2022-

Officials:

Referee: Andy Madley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Huddersfield, 2016-

Assistants: Adrian Holmes, Simon Long

Fourth official: Thomas Bramall

VAR: Michael Oliver | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Northumberland, 2021-

Assistant VAR: Samuel Barrott

Fixture History:

Villa’s 59th meeting with Palace

Total 🕒 58 | 🟩 W23 (40%) | 🟨 D16 | 🇺 (68%) 🟥 L19 (33%) | ⚽ 79 | 🥅 68 | GD 11

Full Head to Head History: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/crystal-palace Did you know? Villa didn't face Palace in the League until 1967 but faced, and beat them, twice before in the FA Cup in 1913 and 1962

https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/aston-villa/matches/opponent/legacy-numbers

Sequences:

Last 5 League Games: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟩

Last 5 Away League Games: 🟥 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟥

Last 5 vs. Palace: Not really that relevant is it?

Last 5 vs. Palace at Selhurst Park: Whatever

Villa’s last 5 Premier League results vs. Palace at Selhurst Park:

🟥 25 Feb 2025, Villa 1-4 Palace, Selhurst

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5765

🟥 19 May 2024, Villa 0-5 Palace, Selhurst

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5725

🟥 20 Aug 2022, Villa 1-3 Palace, Selhurst

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5631

🟩 27 Nov 2021, Villa 2-1 Palace, Selhurst

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5602

🟥 16 May 2021, Villa 2-3 Palace, Selhurst

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5585

Last Win:

🟩 27 Nov 2021, Villa 2-1 Palace, Selhurst

Scorer(s) | Matt Targett | 15’ | John McGinn | 86’ |

Assist(s) | Ashley Young | 15’ | Anwar El Ghazi | 86’ |

Starting XI

GK Emiliano Martínez | 🇦🇷 | LB Matt Targett | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | ⚽ | CB Ezri Konsa | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | CB Tyrone Mings | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | RB Matty Cash | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇵🇱 | 🟨 | RB Ashley Young | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔥 | 🔁 | M John McGinn | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 | ⚽ | M Marvelous Nakamba | 🇿🇼 | 🟨 | M Jacob Ramsey | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 🔁 | W Leon Bailey | 🇯🇲 | 🔁 | CF Ollie Watkins | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Substitutes

🔁 | M Douglas Luiz | 🇧🇷 | 🟨 | for M Jacob Ramsey | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 67’ |

🔁 | W Anwar El Ghazi | 🇳🇱 | 🔥 | for W Leon Bailey | 🇯🇲 | 77’ |

🔁 | W Emiliano Buendía | 🇦🇷 | for W Ashley Young | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | 85’ |

Unused Substitutes

GK Jed Steer | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

CB Kortney Hause | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

CB Axel Tuanzebe | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

M Morgan Sanson | 🇫🇷 |

M Carney Chukwuemeka | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

CF Danny Ings | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |

Match Timeline

⚽ | 15’ Goal, 1-0, Matt Targett, Assist by Ashley Young 🟨 | 29’ Booking, Matty Cash⏱️ | HT Crystal Palace 0-1 Aston Villa 🟨 | 54’ Booking, Marvelous Nakamba, Bad foul 🔁 | 67’ Sub off, Jacob Ramsey, Sub on Douglas Luiz 🟥 | 72’ Sending off, Douglas Luiz 🎥 | 73’ VAR Decision, Sending off rescinded, Douglas Luiz 🟨 | 74’ Booking, Douglas Luiz 🔁 | 77’ Sub off Leon Bailey, Sub on, Anwar El Ghazi 🔁 | 85’ Sub off, Ashley Young, Sub on, Emiliano Buendía ⚽ | 86’ Goal, 2-0, John McGinn, Assist by Anwar El Ghazi 🥅 | 90’+5 Goal, 2-1, (Crystal Palace), Marc Guéhi ⏱️ | FT Crystal Palace 1-2 Aston Villa

Full Match Report:

https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5602

The Opposition:

With a decent keeper who appears to leave his best for playing Villa and one of football's worst hatchet men in midfield in Will Hughes, Palace, bewilderingly have had the measure of Villa in recent seasons.

Direct, fast, physical and uncompromising, loving a set piece and barely interested in playing constructive football. It's all about hump it long and playing the percentages. Their gaffer is an xG believer after all. Basically they are another Billion Pound Stoke, sorry Arsenal, but with a more sophisticated manager and less talented players.

They'll go long at every opportunity in the hope that Villa's high line fails to hold their speedy attack.

Whisper it quietly though, they are actually not very good.

Sequences

Palace Last 5 League Games: 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟨 🟥 Palace Last 5 Home League Games: 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟨

Palace Last 5 vs. Villa: 🟥 🟨 🟥 🟥 🟥

Palace Last 5 vs. Villa at Selhurst Park: 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟥 🟥 Palace sit 14th in the table, but well clear of the relegation places, despite having not won at home in the League since 1st November and having not won a League game at all since 7th December. Palace are fifteen points behind Villa after twenty games and are on a three game losing run coming into this game, having not won in seven in all competitions.

What could happen:

Palace could get yet another freak result against Villa, but it should be unlikely that the bizarre run continues. That said the 'rub of the green' that Palace have had over that period (VAR errors, refereeing howlers, Mateta becoming a goalscorer and Will Hughes not being sent off) surely must end at some point. The danger man is as always Ismaila Sarr, so thank fuck he's busy at AFCON,

Regardless of the result, Villa will remain third in the table, but could take back second-place if they win and Pep "We have a lot of injuries" Guardiola can't beat Brighton.

Ezri Konsa 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 could make his 150th start under Unai Emery 🇪🇸

Full Player Profile: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/player/ezri-konsa

Lamare Bogarde 🇳🇱 could make his 20th start for Villa

Full Player Profile: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/player/lamare-bogarde

Referee History:

Referee: Andy Madley | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Huddersfield, 2016-

🕒 26 | 🟩 13 | 🟨 6 | 🟥 7 |

🕒 26 | 🟩 50% | 🟨 23% | 🟥 27% |

Cards 🟨 54 | 🟥 2 | 2.15 |

Opposition Cards 🟨 60 | 🟥 0 | 1.92 |

Penalty ⚽ 4 | 🥅 2 | ❌ - |

Disallowed ❌ - |

Last 5: 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟩 Madley has refereed Palace vs. Villa at Selhurst Park once before and was, instrumental in Villa's defeat after having taken the lead, they were pegged back before a penalty decision against Lucas Digne for handball that no-one, including Madley himself was convinced by. That VAR of the era salivated and confirmed the award added salt to the wounds before Zaha's (remember him?) penalty was saved only to score from the rebound.

As we said, luck of the green has always been with Palace in recent seasons in these fixtures but it must surely run out soon.

Full Match Report: https://www.avfchistory.co.uk/game/5631

VAR: Michael Oliver | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Northumberland, 2021-

Oliver has never VAR'd a Villa / Palace game but does love a penalty from the comfort of his office, unless it's for Villa.

VAR: Michael Oliver | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Northumberland, 2021-

🕒 12 | 🟩 5 | 🟨 2 | 🟥 5 |

🕒 12 | 🟩 42% | 🟨 17% | 🟥 42% |

Cards 🟨 25 | 🟥 0 | 2.08 |

Opposition Cards 🟨 33 | 🟥 1 | 2.83 |

Penalty ⚽ 0 | 🥅 3 | ❌ 2 |

Disallowed ❌ 1 |

Last 5: 🟩 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟩

Prediction

Should be the biggest away win of the season to date.

Palace will probably score, most likely against the run of play.

A 4-1 win as a conservative estimate with Victor Lindelöf the key man marshalling the defence to keep its discipline as the ball flies long and high to the blunt Mateta.

Recommended Reading

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