This season is only the 17th season that the two clubs are playing in the same division and that includes six seasons in the second tier. Despite the signing of a much-needed striker coming in the form of Islam Slimani, he is unable to play in the next few matches due to a thigh injury, it seems that this is also the case for next weekend’s big match against Man United.

The last time we played at Selhurst Park was back in November 2015 and became Crystal Palace’s first win against us since March 1998 and the first time the Eagles had beaten us by more than two goals. Roy Hodgson has done an excellent job in recovering Crystal Palace after a record-breaking (not in a good way) start to the season. The Palace team at present, I think, is a very different team to the one we came up against and beat back in October. It’s a team with more confidence and has grown a lot under Hodgson’s management so a tough task is ahead of us on Sunday but I do believe we can win but only if the players have the correct attitude and approach to the game; of which there is no guarantee.

Facts and Figures

All Competitions

Newcastle wins: 25

Crystal Palace wins: 9

Draws: 6

Top Flight

Newcastle wins: 11

Crystal Palace wins: 6

Draws: 4

Top Flight at Crystal Palace

Newcastle wins: 5

Crystal Palace wins: 4

Draws: 1

Previous ten (all competitions)

Newcastle wins: 7 (18 goals)

Draws: 2

Crystal Palace: 1 (11 goals)

Biggest wins (in this fixture)

Crystal Palace 0 - 3 Newcastle United (04/10/1969)

Crystal Palace 0 – 3 Newcastle United (21/12/2013)

Our impressive first half of the 2013/14 season continued with an impressive display as Alan Pardew retuned to Selhurst Park (player 1987-1991) for the first time since his time as Charlton manager in the 2007/08 season and 53 weeks before becoming the new Palace manager after the sacking of Neil Warnock (who probably blamed the referee for his sacking). Goals from Yohan Cabaye, a Danny Gabbidon own goal and an excellent Hatem Ben Arfa penalty secured a convincing away win which kept the Magpie in 6th place and just three points off a rather compact top four.

Biggest defeat (in this fixture)

Crystal Palace 5 – 1 Newcastle United (28/11/2015)

Going into Sunday’s fixture, we do have a decent record when we have come up against teams who are around us in the table. We have beaten four of the current bottom nine (Crystal Palace, Swansea and doubles against West Ham and Stoke) and have lost to only two of those bottom nine (Brighton and Huddersfield).

Considering our decent record against Palace, the fact that they are with us in that compact bottom half of the table and following the recent collection of failing to grab much needed victories of late, I’m seeing this match as a must win because we are capable of that and three points on Sunday, which would end the win drought, would lift a lot of pressure off depending on other results over the course of the weekend.