Crystal Palace and West Ham play their first Premier League fixture of 2022 as they meet at Selhurst Park in a New Year’s Day London derby.

Both teams will head into the tie hoping to build on very good results last time out. Tenth-placed Palace comprehensively smashed Norwich 3-0, while fifth-placed West Ham need to keep the pressure on in the race for Champions League qualification after taking no prisoners in a 4-1 thrashing of Watford.

Here’s 90min’s preview of this New Year’s Day encounter.

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When is kick off? Saturday 1 January, 17:30 (GMT)
Where is it being played? Selhurst Park, London
TV channel? Sky Sports Main Event (UK) NBC/fuboTV (US), DAZN (Canada)
Highlights? BBC Match of the Day (UK), Sky Sports Football YouTube channel
Referee? Michael Oliver
VAR? Chris Kavanagh

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The hosts should be able to welcome back Conor Gallagher, whose absence against Norwich was just precautionary. Wilfried Zaha will also return to action, having served his one-match suspension last time out.

Elsewhere, Ebere Eze, Michael Olise, James McArthur and Nathaniel Clyne are expected to continue to miss out while Joachim Andersen could join them, having sustained a knock on Tuesday night.

Perhaps the most significant absentee, however, will be Patrick Vieira. The Crystal Palace boss will continue his isolation period, allowing Osian Roberts to deputise on the touchline once again.

You can read Palace’s predicted lineup here.

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The headline news for David Moyes‘ side is that Declan Rice will be able to return from suspension, likely replacing Mark Nobel at the heart of midfield.

There are doubts over Pablo Fornals‘ availability for the trip to Palace, as the Spaniard was left out of Moyes‘ matchday squad in the Hammers‘ thrashing of Watford.

Elsewhere, their squad is looking healthy, though. The only certain absentees are first-choice centre-back pairing Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma, with left-back Aaron Cresswell joining them on the treatment table.

You can read West Ham’s predicted lineup here.

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The Hammers come out happiest when taking history into account. West Ham have won 24 of the two clubs‘ 63 meetings, with Palace tasting victory just 16 times – there have been 23 draws.

However, recent years have proved much more even. The Eagles soared to victory on two occasions during the 2019/20 campaign, beating West Ham 2-1 home and away, and impressively held the Champions League chasers to a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium earlier this season.

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There shouldn’t be too much to separate these two sides. Both come into Saturday’s match-up with rocky spells behind them but also after important and confidence-boosting victories.

It will most likely take a moment or two of quality to decide the game on the day and, although Palace are more than capable of producing magic with the likes of Odsonne Edouard and the returning Zaha and Gallagher, the calibre of the Hammers‘ creative and attacking threats – as well as their less depleted contingent – should see them edge the contest.

Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 West Ham