It’s a season of transition for Crystal Palace following an historic two years that saw both the FA Cup and then the Europa Conference League trophy make their way into the Selhurst Park trophy cabinet.

Much like Kieran McKenna, Oliver Glasner decided to leave the club on a high, having decided the Eagles were going in the wrong direction following the sales of Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi.

He ended up at Nottingham Forest in a surprising switch, while Palace turned to Pierre Sage to replace him. The Frenchman joined from RC Lens, a club whom he took into the Champions League and won silverware, guiding them to their first ever Coupe De France title, giving him exactly the sort of pedigree that Palace will have been looking for.

Goalkeepers

Dean Henderson has finally found a settled home and seems to have firmly established himself as England number two having failed to wrestle the gloves off a rotating door of goalkeepers at Manchester United.

He’s entering his fourth season at Palace, having had a positive goals prevented metric the last two seasons and made crucial saves at important moments in cup competitions.

At this level having a reliable keeper between the sticks can win you points and Henderson definitely represents one of those.

Former Nice and PSV Eindhoven keeper Walter Benitez is number two with Remi Matthews completing the Goalkeeping unit.

Defenders

This will be Town’s first game against a back five this season, something they struggled to contend with in the McKenna era. It is, however, a rather new backline with Guehi leaving halfway through last season, Maxence Lacroix departing for Chelsea and flying wing-back Daniel Munoz reuniting with Glasner at Forest.

Chris Richards provides continuity from the old regime and has been moved back out to his favoured right centre-back slot with the loan signing of Axel Disasi from Chelsea who has come into the middle.

It’s 20-year-old Frenchman Jaydee Canvot that has really drawn my attention though. He has become Palace’s main out-ball, making more passes and more progressive passes than the rest of his teammates as you can see below.

Munoz’s replacement on the right is Anan Khalaili, a former team mate of Kjell Scherpen at Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, and a player Town are understood to have made an offer for in the summer. He’s more defensive than the man he’s replaced and finished the Fulham match with 18 defensive actions with only Disasi completing more for Palace.

With a more defensive right-hand side, it’s clear that Sage has made tweaks to allow the Palace left to attack far more effectively.

These are the average positions from last week's match against Fulham and you can see just how high Tyrick Mitchell is. Often tasked as being the defensive wing-back under Glasner, he was unleashed and ended up with two goals with his replacement Ben Chilwell netting the winner from the same position.

It could be that Gary O’Neil opts to bring in Abdoul Ouattara on the right wing to counteract this threat.

Moroccan Chadi Riad is out with a long-term knee injury, so defensive cover is currently provided by former Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu and 18-year-old Honest Ahanor, who made a deadline day move from Atalanta to Chelsea with the stipulation that he would be loaned to a fellow Premier League club for experience.

He was one that Town were linked with on deadline day but ended up with the much shorter commute to Selhurst Park instead.

Óscar Mingueza was signed on a free from Celta Vigo to cover both wing-back roles whilst 19-year-old Zavier Gozo represents an investment in the future signing from Real Salt Lake.

Midfield

It’s perhaps a surprise that Adam Wharton is still a Palace player given the exodus over the summer, but the 22-year-old, who in my opinion should have been on the plane to the World Cup, is still pulling the strings in the Palace midfield. Only Bruno Fernandes, Rayan Cherki and Declan Rice created more than Wharton’s 15 big chances last season.

He has a new partner in the middle of the pitch with deadline-day signing Quinten Timber starting alongside him against Fulham. Timber featured three times for the Netherlands off the bench at the World Cup.

This freed Daichi Kamada to play further forward. The Japanese international scored twice at the World Cup having had a completely goalless campaign for Palace last season and will have to improve on that this year with more attacking onus on him.

Will Hughes, Jefferson Lerma and Cheick Doucouré provide midfield depth and all come with plenty of Premier League experience.

Forwards

With talismanic striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and attacking winger Ismaïla Sarr both injured, Palace have been missing 54% of their goals from last season. Sarr is returning to fitness, but Saturday could be too soon for him to start.

That places the burden on some underperforming players from last season. Jorgen Strand Larsen has failed to find the magic formula to help him recreate the purple patch he had at Wolves and it’s a similar story for Eddie Nketiah, who has a paltry 11 goals from 59 Palace appearances.

Yéremy Pino is a danger in Sage’s formation, having been given a free role behind the striker and has the ability and trickery to create something out of nothing, but his goal contributions last season were also low.

Dario Osorio is an interesting signing. The young Chilean played as a very aggressive right wing-back for previous club FC Midtjylland but that is surely a place where Palace are stacked with talent so Sage could be planning on using him further forward as he excels in dribbling.

Dwight McNeill, who was involved in a swap deal with Everton involving Brennan Johnson going the other way, and Evann Guessand, who joined on loan from Aston Villa, provide the attacking depth.

Prediction

If this game had come prior to the end of the transfer window, I'd have been more confident predicting an away win but I think Palace have done some good business late on, allowing players to move into their more natural roles and shoring up some of the vulnerabilities in the midfield and the backline.

Unlike the Manchester United and Liverpool games, this one will be a real marker of where this Town side is. From what I've seen so far, a point would represent a good result, so I'm going for a 2-2 draw.

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