palace

Las Vegas - A Premier League game today with two teams that are stuck in the middle of the table might not be that attractive, but there's always money to rake.

It'll be Crystal Palace hosting Burnley. These teams are basically dead even. Both are sitting on 42 points. Palace has won 11, lost 11 and posted 9 draws. Burnley has won 12, lost 13 and posted 6 draws. The only metric that shows an edge is in goals scored and allowed. The Eagles from South London have put just 28 balls in the net, while the visiting Clarets from Lancashire have filled it up 35 times. Defensively, Palace has the edge, allowing only 36 goals, while Burnley has let in 45. Palace also has a slight edge in goal differential with a -8 compared to the Clarets -10.

Both teams have knocks as they say in England, with Crystal listing Wilfried Zaha, Christian Benteke and goalie Vicente Guaita as game time decisions, while James Tomkins, Martin Kelly and Jeffrey Schlupp are expected to miss out. Burnley is keeping an eye on Jay Rodriguez as a possible, while Ashley Barnes, Robbie Brady, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Chris Wood will probably not see any action.

As usual, in the new world of sports, there will not be any fans in the stadium, but still, Burnley has NEVER enjoyed coming to Selhurst Park, where they've picked up only one victory in the last 13 matches. Ouch!

Palace lost its last game to Liverpool, but that was to be expected since the Reds just won the league title. In the four games before that, the Eagles beat Bournemouth 2-0, Watford 1-0, Brighton & Hove 1-0 and Newcastle 1-0. Four games, four BAGELS. Also, Crystal manager Roy Hodgson has NEVER lost to Burnley, winning five with one draw.

The only issue is Palace goalie Vicente Guaita. He has TEN clean sheets (bagels) this season, but was kept out of the game against Liverpool with a thigh strain. If Guaiboy plays, we would probably drop a few chips on the kids from South London.

After sweeping the board this weekend with the Manchester parlay and the Dustin Poirier W in the UFC, think we'll just sit back and watch if Guaita is riding the bench.

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