🏏 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 15:00 BST
Crystal Palace
vs
Ipswich
3-4-2-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Thirteenth against fourteenth, and the two records are indistinguishable: three matches played, one win and two defeats, four goals scored and eight conceded for a goal difference of minus four, three points each. Manchester City set the pace on nine points, but with Fulham and Coventry still without a point, neither side can afford to let this early-season meeting drift.
- Palace go into this one on the back of their first win. Beaten 2-0 at Everton and 4-1 at home by Manchester City, they travelled to Fulham on matchday three and came away 3-2 winners. Ipswich are heading the other way: a 2-1 home victory over Sunderland was followed by a 5-2 defeat at Old Trafford and a 2-0 home loss to Liverpool.
- Palace's 3-4-2-1 meets Ipswich's 4-2-3-1, and the decisive zone is the space either side of the Ezequiel Palacios–Sasa Lukic pivot. If Daichi Kamada and Yeremy Pino can drop into those pockets and turn, a back four that has already shipped eight goals in three games will be stretched both centrally and out wide, with wing-backs Tyrick Mitchell and Anan Khalaili pushing high to create overloads.
- The two midfield engine rooms are built differently. Adam Wharton, 22, was called into England's Euro 2024 squad within months of leaving Blackburn and dictates tempo with his left foot, while Quinten Timber brings ball-winning bite honed at Ajax's academy, Utrecht, Feyenoord and Marseille. Ipswich counter with Palacios, a Bundesliga winner at Bayer Leverkusen, and the 30-year-old Serbia international Lukic, previously of Torino and Fulham.
- Kamada is the creative hub of the home side at 30. He won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, spent a season at Lazio and helped Palace lift the 2025 FA Cup, and his through-balls and late runs into the box remain their most reliable source of chances. Beside him is Pino, the 23-year-old Spain international handed the number 10 as Eze's successor after breaking through at Villarreal as a teenager.
- Jorgen Strand Larsen leads the line for Palace, a 193cm Norway international signed from Wolves for a club-record £48m. Ipswich have the height to meet him: Issa Diop stands 194cm, Ireland's Dara O'Shea 189cm, and behind them is Kjell Scherpen at 206cm, one of the tallest goalkeepers in Europe. Crosses and set pieces into that box should be a genuine contest.
- Ipswich's lone striker is the 22-year-old Brazilian Emerson, a product of Athletico Paranaense who scored heavily for Goztepe in Turkey and arrived in England via Toulouse. At 186cm he backs himself in direct duels and shoots on sight. Waiting for him are Axel Disasi, the France centre-back on loan from Chelsea, and Chris Richards, the USA international who won a Bundesliga title at Bayern Munich — both defenders whose calling card is physical one-v-one defending.
- Both goalkeepers carry Eredivisie pedigree. Walter Benitez, 33, won successive Dutch titles at PSV and was voted Ligue 1's goalkeeper of the year during his spell at Nice. Scherpen, 26, came through Emmen and Ajax before a move to Brighton led to stints at Vitesse, Oostende, Sturm Graz and Union Saint-Gilloise. Add Timber's Feyenoord background and there is a distinctly Dutch thread running through this fixture.
- The flanks are worth watching. Mitchell, a Palace academy graduate with more than 180 appearances, patrols the left, while 22-year-old Khalaili — signed from Union Saint-Gilloise for a record fee for an Israeli player — attacks from the right. Ipswich respond with Jack Clarke, the Leeds academy product who made his name at Sunderland cutting inside onto his right foot, Ghana winger Fatawu Issahaku running in behind, and left-back Leif Davis, long a fixture near the top of the EFL assist charts.
- Three Japanese players are involved. Kamada is the only one in the starting eleven; Palace also have 187cm Takehiro Tomiyasu on the bench, a defender who made 84 appearances across four seasons at Arsenal and can fill in at right-back, centre-back or in midfield. Ipswich's bench features Daizen Maeda, a former J1 top scorer with Yokohama F. Marinos who spent nearly five years winning trophies at Celtic and whose raw pace and relentless pressing can change a game late on.