{"id":644054,"date":"2025-12-20T10:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644054\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T10:27:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T10:27:26","slug":"leeds-united-fans-will-love-paul-merson-and-chris-suttons-predictions-for-crystal-palace-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644054\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds United fans will love Paul Merson and Chris Sutton&#8217;s predictions for Crystal Palace clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Leeds United have a massive chance to distance themselves from the relegation zone on Saturday night if they can manage to beat Crystal Palace at Elland Road.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After going three games unbeaten against Chelsea, Liverpool and Brentford away, the feel-good factor is back at <a href=\"http:\/\/leedsunited.news\/club\/stadium\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elland Road<\/a>, and no one is doubting <a href=\"http:\/\/leedsunited.news\/club\/manager\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Farke\u2019s <\/a>position as manager, at least for a few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Palace have injury problems. Daichi Kamada will miss the trip to Yorkshire, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leedsunited.news\/news\/leeds-united-and-crystal-palace-injury-round-up-with-eight-missing-and-one-big-doubt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Japan star one of six Palace players absent<\/a>. Ismaila Sarr has left to represent Senegal at the African Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n<p>          Can Daniel Farke get one over on Oliver Glasner this weekend? \ud83e\udd9a\ud83e\udd85 <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">The Leeds boss was full of praise for his opposite number<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AI-9-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner with Leeds United manager Daniel Farke inset\" class=\"wp-image-122971\" \/>Credit: Sebastian Frej\/Getty Images and George Wood\/Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>Palace were in action at 8pm on Thursday night and while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leedsunited.news\/news\/crystal-palace-manager-oliver-glasner-has-just-handed-leeds-united-a-big-boost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oliver Glasner will make 11 changes<\/a>, he was forced to use his starting players to try and beat KuPS, eventually drawing 2-2. West Ham face Man City.<\/p>\n<p>It is a massive game, arguably Farke\u2019s biggest as <a href=\"http:\/\/leedsunited.news\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leeds<\/a> manager. Leeds can go six clear of the relegation zone; a huge step towards achieving Farke\u2019s long-term goal, establishing Leeds as a Premier League club.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1313886534-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Pundit Chris Sutton speaks prior to Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion - Premier League\" class=\"wp-image-107394\" \/>Photo by Michael Regan\/Getty ImagesChris Sutton predicts Leeds and Crystal Palace to draw<\/p>\n<p>Probably, the likeliest result is a draw. This is a Leeds side, rested compared to Palace\u2019s fatigued squad, but lacking in quality compared to Glasner\u2019s men. Elland Road is a leveller for Leeds ahead of tonight.<\/p>\n<p>In his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/cj4qyrxggglo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BBC Sports column this week<\/a>, former Premier League champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leedsunited.news\/tag\/chris-sutton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chris Sutton<\/a> believes the two sides will play out a 1-1 draw. Sutton made his prediction following Palace\u2019s 2-2 draw against Finnish side KuPS.<\/p>\n<p>MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFarke\u2019s side are always a handful at home and will relish the challenge of getting another good result on Saturday, but I can see this being a very close contest. I am tempted to go with Oliver Glasner\u2019s side.<\/p>\n<p>          Leeds win and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scores \u2013 change my mind \ud83d\udc4a <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Fifth goal in a row, incoming<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LUN-4-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-122866\" \/>     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they have got a Europa Conference League game to contend with on Thursday, which has stretched them in the past. They are going to miss Ismaila Sarr. On that basis I am going for another draw instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul Merson thinks Leeds can have it wrapped up by half-time<\/p>\n<p>While Sutton was unusually conservative in his prediction, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leedsunited.news\/tag\/paul-merson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Merson<\/a> was anything but sitting on the fence. The former Arsenal star predicted Leeds to beat Palace 2-0, saying it could be done by half-time.<\/p>\n<p>Merson told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/news-paul-merson-predicts-tottenham-vs-liverpool-everton-vs-arsenal-premier-league-gw17-fixtures\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sports Keeda<\/a>: \u201cLeeds\u00a0have turned a bend. They are now on a run of three games without a defeat and have scored at least one goal in each of their last six. To stay up, you need to score goals.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1242948817-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Merson looks on before a Premier League clash between Manchester United and Arsenal\" class=\"wp-image-117183\" \/>Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe it\u2019s a direct battle between Leeds and West Ham to avoid relegation. If Leeds play with the same tempo we\u2019ve seen them in recent weeks, they can beat Palace by half-time at Elland Road,\u201d Merson said.<\/p>\n<p>A Leeds win and a Man City win sees Leeds climb into 16th and six ahead of West Ham, at least until Monday night when Nottingham Forest take on Fulham. Leeds should be full of confidence for tonight.<\/p>\n<p>  Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United have a massive chance to distance themselves from the relegation zone on Saturday night if they&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,2987,393,4884,1860,9683,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-644054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chris-sutton","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-paul-merson","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115751424012995081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}