West Ham United could find themselves in the top four of the Premier League table if they can beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night.
The Hammers could leapfrog Liverpool in to the Champions League spots – for 24 hours at least – if they can get the job done away at Roy Hodgson’s Eagles.
David Moyes’ men have looked vastly improved from last season where they narrowly avoided the drop and head in to this encounter fresh off the back of a 4-0 thumping of League One Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup 4th round at the weekend.
Crystal Palace meanwhile weren’t in cup action and as such haven’t played since the 17th January, where they were thrashed 4-0 by an imperious Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Palace sit 13th in the standings but still a reasonable distance from the European spots, whilst being 11 points clear of the relegation zone.
The meeting between these two sides in mid-December at the London Stadium ended in a 1-1 draw, a game which will largely be remembered by the stunning bicycle kick scored by Sebastien Haller, who left West Ham earlier on this month to sign for Ajax.
Crystal Palace were without key figure Wilfried Zaha last time out against Manchester City, but Roy Hodgson is expecting to have Zaha and teammate Cheikhou Kouyate available for the game against the Hammers.
In fact, Hodgson could have as many as 6 first team players sidelined, including Mahmadou Sakho and Jeff Schlupp who are definite absentees.
As for West Ham, David Moyes will likely hand starts to Aaron Cresswell, Declan Rice, Vladimir Coufal and Michail Antonio after resting several players for the cup game against Doncaster at the weekend.
Fabian Balbuena is said to have recovered from a recent knock but Arthur Masuaku remains out as he continues to rebuild his fitness following knee surgery.
Crystal Palace v West Ham kicks off at 6pm on Tuesday 26th January.
