Crystal Palace striker Connor Wickham. (Photo : Getty Images)
Last season's lowly finishers Crystal Palace FC and West Bromwich Albion FC are set to face each other at the Selhurst Park on Saturday, August 13 to open their respective 2016-2017 Premier League season campaigns.
Crystal Palace settled at the 15th spot at the end of last term after they finished the season with five winless performances in their last six matches. The team also lost in the FA Cup final to Manchester United, 1-2, after scoring the opening goal with a Jesse Lingard strike in extra time.
Head coach Alan Pardew will still be on the bench for the Eagles in 2016-2017, which is his second full season with the club after coming from Newcastle United in January 2015.
Notable new signing this summer are winger Andros Townsend from Newcastle United for £13 million, center back James Tomkins from West Ham United for £10 million, and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from Marseille for an undisclosed fee.
Also gone from their side are striker Dwight Gayle to Newcastle for £10 million, goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to Southampton for an undisclosed fee, and left back Jerome Binnom-Williams to Peterborough United also for an undisclosed amount.
The Eagles are coming off a 3-1 friendly victory over La Liga club Valencia at the Selhurst Park last Saturday. Two goals from starting striker Connor Wickham and a spot kick from midfielder Mile Jedinak completed the squad's three-goal haul, via Crystal Palace's official website.
Meanwhile, West Brom is now under Chinese ownership after Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited bought the club last week, but Tony Pulis remained as the club's manager.
There were no major summer moves for the Baggies except for the £5.5 million acquisition of winger Matt Phillips from the Queens Park Rangers last month as the team's senior officials would like to get established with the new owners first before spending a significant amount on transfers.
West Brom's last preseason match ended in a 0-1 loss to Spanish club Mallorca at the Iberostar Estadi also last Saturday, as per Daily Mail Online.
The match will be a good way to start the season for two teams who are starting over, with Palace assessing their new signings while West Brom feeling its way around the new ownership.
The predicted result is a 1-0 home win for Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Hennessey; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souaré; Cabaye, Jedinak; Zaha, McArthur, Bolasie; Wickham
West Brom starting lineup (4-4-1-1 formation): Foster; Dawson, McAuley, Olsson, Evans; Phillips, Yacob, Fletcher, Leko; Morrison; Rondón
