5 Premier League teams who are involved in a battle for relegation

#2 Crystal Palace

Roy Hodgson has had a lot of bad luck at Palace recently

Had things gone slightly differently for Crystal Palace recently, they could be sitting in 12th place right now rather than 18th.

They were minutes away from taking points from Tottenham and Manchester United, but late goals in both games condemned them to two defeats instead – meaning they now haven’t won a Premier League game since January 13th despite not performing badly in what were their two biggest games of 2018 thus far.

Not only have they suffered those two harsh defeats, but Roy Hodgson’s side is also suffering an injury crisis, losing top players like Wilfried Zaha, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Scott Dann for long periods.

Zaha, in particular, has been missed recently – he was at the forefront of the majority of Palace’s attacks, scoring 4 goals and assisting in 1 so far this season. Prior to his injury, Palace had lost one game in six, but since he’s been out of action, they’ve lost all three games.

Palace’s major problem though has been their poor start to the season. They lost seven consecutive games, to begin with as Frank de Boer was fired in favor of Hodgson, but by mid-November, the former England boss appeared to have turned things around.

All of the recent injuries have sucked them back into danger, though, and while youngsters like Aaron Wan-Bissaka have performed well the side still miss the experience that the likes of Mamadou Sakho bring to the table.

If Hodgson’s key players can return soon – Zaha’s return is apparently ahead of schedule – then things could turn around as they haven’t been playing badly, but it won’t be easy. They face off with Chelsea and Liverpool in the upcoming fixtures, but the key matches could be against fellow relegation contenders Stoke and West Brom in May.