Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce has kept faith with his starting XI for the relegation six-pointer with Sunderland this afternoon.

Christian Benteke continues up front for the hosts, who claimed their first league win under Allardyce with a surprise 2-0 victory at Bournemouth in midweek.

Yohan Cabaye, James McArthur, Jason Puncheon and Wilfried Zaha patrol the middle of the park, while January signing Jeffrey Schlupp misses out again with a hamstring injury.

Deadline-day addition Mamadou Sakho earns a place among the substitutes, but fellow new signing Luka Milivojevic is absent as he continues to wait for a work permit.

For the Black Cats, manager David Moyes makes two changes from the starting XI that managed to hold Tottenham Hotspur to a goalless draw last time out, with Adnan Januzaj returning to replace Fabio Borini as partner for Jermain Defoe up front.

The other change sees Javier Manquillo drop back to the bench as Bryan Oviedo earns his debut after signing from Everton earlier this week.

Darron Gibson, who also joined from the Toffees, is named on the bench alongside Joleon Lescott.

Crystal Palace: Hennessey; Ward, Dann, Tomkins, Delaney, Van Aanholt; Cabaye, McArthur, Puncheon, Zaha; Benteke
Subs: Speroni, Fryers, Sakho, Ledley, Flamini, Townsend, Remy

Sunderland: Mannone; Kone, O'Shea, Denayer; Jones, NDong, Rodwell, Oviedo, Larsson, Rodwell; Januzaj, Defoe
Subs: Mika, Borini, Lescott, Pienaar, Khazri, Manquillo, Gibson

Keep up with all of the action from Selhurst Park this afternoon with Sports Mole's live text commentary here.

Written by
Neil Wilkes