Crystal Palace will officially kick off their preparations for the 2024-25 campaign with a pre-season friendly against League One outfit Charlton Athletic on Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles are building towards their Premier League opener against Brentford on August 18, while Charlton will begin their League One campaign against Wigan Athletic on August 10.
Match preview
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Palace were excellent in the latter stages of last season, winning six of their final seven Premier League matches, remaining unbeaten in the process, with the run including successes over Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Aston Villa.
The Eagles are now looking ahead to the 2024-25 campaign, but they have five friendlies in the diary before then, tackling Charlton and Crawley Town before heading to the United States for matches against Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United.
Palace will then face Nantes at Selhurst Park in their final friendly of the summer on August 11, with that match coming seven days before their 2024-25 Premier League opener away to Brentford.
Oliver Glasner's side took on Bournemouth in a training game on Saturday afternoon, but this will be their first official friendly, with new signing Daichi Kamada set to make his debut.
Palace have also brought in Chadi Riad this summer, with the 21-year-old arriving from Real Betis, while Michael Olise has been their biggest exit, with the attacker heading for Bayern Munich.
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As for Charlton, the Addicks finished last season down in 16th spot in the League One table, so the club are preparing for a fifth straight campaign in the third tier of English football.
Charlton have been absent from the Championship since 2019-20 and missing from the Premier League since 2006-07, but they will be hoping to show that they are capable of competing with top-level sides in this match.
Nathan Jones's side have already played three times this summer, opening their preparations for the new season with a 6-1 success over Dartford on July 26 before recording a 3-1 victory over Goztepe, but they lost to Millwall in a training game earlier this week.
Charlton will tackle Palace, AFC Wimbledon and Portsmouth in their final three friendlies of the summer before beginning their League One campaign against Wigan on August 10.
The Addicks will then be in League Cup action against Birmingham City three days later, before playing a further three league games in August against Leyton Orient, Bolton Wanderers and Reading.
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Team News
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Palace will be without the services of Jean-Philippe Mateta due to his involvement in the 2024 Olympics, while Dean Henderson, Marc Guehi, Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton were in the England squad for Euro 2024 and will therefore not be back with the Eagles until the latter stages of pre-season.
Joachim Andersen played for Denmark at the European Championship and is also still recovering, while Chris Richards, Jefferson Lerma and Daniel Munoz featured at the Copa America.
Riad and Kamada should make their debuts on Saturday, while the likes of Rob Holding, Jordan Ayew and Jeffrey Schlupp are also expected to be involved from the first whistle, but Sam Johnstone is still recovering from an elbow operation.
As for Charlton, head coach Jones will again make full use of his squad in this match, and there are expected to be more chances for youngsters to impress.
Daniel Kanu and Tyreece Campbell could start as the front two, while there is likely to be a spot in a wide position for Chuks Aneke.
Charlton have brought in seven new signings this summer, with Gassan Ahadme and Luke Berry among those to arrive, and the pair should both be involved this weekend.
Crystal Palace possible starting lineup:
Matthews; Ward, Holding, Riad, Mitchell; Schlupp, Hughes, Doucoure; Rak-Sakyi, J Ayew, Franca
Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:
Mannion; Z Mitchell, Jones, Gillesphey; Watson, Coventry, Berry, Anderson, Aneke; Kanu, Campbell
We say: Crystal Palace 2-1 Charlton Athletic
Palace will be missing some important players for this match, but head coach Glasner will still be able to name a side full of quality. Charlton should be competitive opposition, but we are expecting the Eagles to have enough to emerge victorious on Saturday afternoon.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Crystal Palace win with a probability of 44.88%. A win for Charlton Athletic had a probability of 31.82% and a draw had a probability of 23.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Crystal Palace win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.09%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.34%) and 2-0 (6.36%). The likeliest Charlton Athletic win was 1-2 (7.49%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.48%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 10.5% likelihood.
Matt Law
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