Aston Villa will be looking to leapfrog Crystal Palace in the Premier League table when they welcome the Eagles to Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
While the hosts have picked up six points from a possible 12 available so far this season, the visitors have accumulated seven points from their first four top-flight fixtures.
Match preview
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Aside from their emphatic 8-0 aggregate victory over Hibernian to qualify for the Europa Conference League group stage, Aston Villa have experienced a mixed start to the new season, winning two and losing two of their opening four Premier League fixtures.
Unai Emery's men were put to the sword 3-0 against Liverpool at Anfield before the international break, with a Matty Cash own goal sandwiched between strikes from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah, leaving the Lions sitting 10th in the table.
Villa will welcome a return to home soil where they have won each of their last eight top-flight matches by an aggregate score of 18-2, including a comfortable 4-0 victory against Everton at the end of August.
Their impressive winning run at Villa Park began with a slender 1-0 success over Saturday's opponents Crystal Palace in March, a result that extended their unbeaten home record against the Eagles to six matches.
Emery and co will be keen to return to winning ways in a favourable-looking fixture this weekend and build positive momentum before preparing for their Europa Conference League opener in Poland against Legia Warsaw and a top-flight away trip to Chelsea.
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Crystal Palace entered the international break on a high as they followed up a 4-2 comeback win over Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Cup second round with a 3-2 home victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
Following a goalless first half, Eberechi Eze scored in between strikes from Odsonne Edouard to help the Eagles register their second league win of the season and climb to seventh in the table, sitting on seven points from four games and just three points behind the top four.
Despite their positive start, manager Roy Hodgson has insisted that his Palace side are "still very much a work in progress" and certain aspects of their game need to be addressed as they conclude September with fixtures against Aston Villa and Fulham as well as a double-header with Manchester United in the league and EFL Cup.
Palace head into Saturday's match having won only one of their last 11 visits to Villa Park – a 1-0 success in December 2013 – and they have only scored five goals (0.45 per game) during this run; only at Tottenham Hotspur (0.36) do the Eagles have a lower goal-to-game ratio away from home against an opponent that they have faced at least 10 times in the top flight.
However, Palace have made an unbeaten start on the road so far this term, scoring six goals in the process, and securing at least a draw against Villa would see them remain undefeated from their first three away league games of a new season for the first time since the 1994-95 campaign.
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Team News
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Aston Villa will be without Emiliano Buendia, Tyrone Mings (both knee), Diego Carlos (hamstring), Tim Iroegbunam (unspecified), Jacob Ramsey (ankle) and Bertrand Traore (muscle) due to injury, the latter two are closing in on a return, though, while Alex Moreno (thigh) has returned to training but remains doubtful; Phillipe Coutinho, meanwhile, has joined Qatari club Al-Duhail on loan.
The absence of Carlos could see Emery revert to a 4-4-2 formation with Ezri Konsa partnering either Pau Torres or Clement Lenglet at centre-back in between full-back Matty Cash and Lucas Digne.
Moussa Diaby should continue to provide support in attack for Ollie Watkins, while Youri Tielemans recently expressed his frustration over a lack of game time, but the midfielder may have to settle for a place on the substitutes' bench once again as Boubacar Kamara, Douglas Luiz and John McGinn are all preferred ahead of the Belgian by Emery at present.
As for Crystal Palace, Hodgson has confirmed that Marc Guehi (muscle) and Jefferson Lerma (hamstring) are both set to miss Saturday's game after picking up injuries on international duty with England and Colombia respectively, and the duo will be joined on the sidelines by Michael Olise (hamstring), James Tomkins (unspecified) and summer signing Matheus Franca (back).
The absence of Guehi could see Rob Holding make his debut in central defence alongside Joachim Andersen, while Will Hughes - who made his first appearance of the season as a late substitute in the win over Wolves after recovering from a knee injury, could replace Lerma and start alongside Cheick Doucoure.
Only Erling Haaland (20) has had more shots in the Premier League than both Eze and Edouard (19 each) so far this season, and the Eagles duo are expected to continue in the first XI this weekend, with the former operating in an advanced midfield role in behind the latter up front.
Aston Villa possible starting lineup:
Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Bailey, Kamara, Luiz, McGinn; Diaby, Watkins
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; Ward, Holding, Andersen, Mitchell; Doucoure, Hughes; Ayew, Eze, Schlupp; Edouard
We say: Aston Villa 2-1 Crystal Palace
There has been little to separate Aston Villa and Crystal Palace in recent years, with the two teams picking up seven points each across the last five Premier League meetings, and another closely-fought contest could be in store on Saturday.
Palace have the potential to cause Villa problems in attack, but we believe that Villa, who boast an impressive home record, will outscore their opponents en route to claiming maximum points.
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