Palace and Baggies set to share the spoils

Crystal Palace play West Bromwich Albion with the two sides hovering perilously above the Premier League relegation zone.

As these teams are both outside the bottom three by just a single point, this is a quintessential six-pointer.

Three of the last six encounters between the Eagles and the Baggies have ended all square, so another draw here is 23/10.

Palace and Albion have already met twice this season, recording one win each. A home victory at Selhurst Park is 7/5 as the Eagles are unbeaten in their last three here.

West Brom meanwhile have not won away since the sensational 2-1 upset of reigning champions Manchester United at Old Trafford in September. This explains their price of 15/8 here.

Both Eagles boss Tony Pulis and Baggies head coach Pepe Mel made late dips in the January transfer window on deadline-day in a bid to stave off the drop.

Palace were the busier club, however, landing centre back Scott Dann, goalie Wayne Hennessey, winger Tom Ince and midfielder Joe Ledley as well as signing Jason Puncheon permanently.

Albion meanwhile captured French forward Thievy from Spanish La Liga side Espanyol. He is likely to be on the bench, however.

Coral have laid on a special market that contains several deadline-day signings and which will score first. Ince, on loan at the Eagles from Blackpool, is an attractive favourite at 5/2.

Wales international and former Celtic man Ledley meanwhile is 9/2. Punters can get 7/1 on West Brom new boy Thievy.

Pulis could give debuts to Dann, Ince and Ledley against Albion and Glenn Murray, Palace’s top scorer last term, may make his comeback from a cruciate knee ligament injury.

The Baggies will be without defender Jonas Olsson and forwards Stephane Sessegnon and Nicolas Anelka, who have hamstring, knee and groin problems respectively.

Five of the last six encounters in this fixture have contained precisely two goals. Coral go evens on both teams to score and odds-on at 4/5 for the total number of goals to be even.

Punters can also get 15/8 on the Eagles keeping a clean sheet – something they have managed in three of their last six outings.

If Dann is thrown in at the back by Pulis, however, then such a defensive change may take time to bed in and could put that recent Eagles tightness at risk.

All signs point to the draw, even if such an outcome does nothing to boost either side’s survival prospects.