Saturday 26 December 2015

AFCB v Palace could be a Christmas cracker!

Boxing Day is going to be very entertaining at Dean Court. I can't see Crystal Palace and AFCB sitting back at all in this match and it just could be an end-to-end thriller. AFCB come into the game on the back of three wins and Palace themselves are unbeaten in four.
Get yourself down to Dean Court for more Christmas action from the Cherries.
Eddie Howe has to be very careful in getting the balance just right for this game. Crystal Palace will be confident that they can take all three points and stopping them will need full concentration for the 90 minutes. The pressure on the Cherries may have dipped a little with recent wins,  but they are still only four points off the relegation zone and every point is so valuable at this stage. Going into the Arsenal game, Eddie will not want a hiding from Crystal Palace and as the final home game of 2015 he'll want to close the year with a positive performance.

While we could see a change in attack from the Cherries, I am also interested to see what the bench line up will be for this game. Tokelo Rantie came on at the Hawthorns and he may just be getting closer to getting even more time on the pitch now. We've also seen Christian Atsu back in training which could see him land a place on the bench if Stanislas and King are struggling.

One position that I don't think will be under threat at the moment is Artur Boruc's in goal. He pulled out another fabulous save against WBA early on and is really working hard to get that third clean sheet. If the Cherries can keep Crystal Palace from scoring then that will be a great way to end the home games in 2015.

Transfer update
According to the Daily Mirror, AFCB could be looking to land Atlanta keeper Marco Sportiello in January for around £6m - the fitness problems of Boruc and Federici are forcing Eddie Howe to look for another keeper option.

Possible AFCB team for Palace game
(4-1-4-1) Boruc (GK), Smith (RB), Francis (CD), Cook (CD), Daniels (LB), 
Ritchie (RM), Arter (CM), Gosling (CM), Surman (CM), Pugh (LM), Murray (FW)

AFCB Subs: Federici (GK), Distin (CD), Butcher (CM), O’Kane (CM), MacDonald (CM), Kermorgant (FW), Rantie (FW)

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