Paul Merson hails “brilliant” Crystal Palace decisions, makes “comfortable” prediction vs Leicester

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Crystal Palace are back in Premier League action on Saturday, taking on Leicester City in a game which could kick-start the season.

For Crystal Palace, the start to this season has been far from ideal with one point in three games but after some really strong improvements on deadline day – the season starts now.

Eddie Nketiah, Maxence Lacroix and Trevoh Chalobah are all excellent additions to the Eagles, which presents Oliver Glasner with a very strong team to select from.

Now, ahead of Saturday’s game Paul Merson has predicted the game, while also praising some of the work done by Crystal Palace over the summer.

• READ MORE: Full Crystal Palace fixture list for 2024/25 Premier League season

Paul Merson predicts Crystal Palace vs Leicester City

After adding four names on deadline day, some quantifiable improvements will be expected by Crystal Palace, and in Merson’s SportsKeeda prediction piece, this is exactly what he predicted would happen.

“Crystal Palace will have too much for Leicester City this weekend. But I still think Leicester have to approach this game in the right way. They must look at it and think, ‘We can definitely win this’.

“I’m backing Oliver Glasner and company to get a comfortable win here. Leicester might get a goal, but it won’t be enough.

“They’ve simply not shown enough to suggest they can get a result against a team like Palace.”

Merson then predicted the scoreline, naming a 3-1 Eagles win as his prediction which could be a huge result for Crystal Palace to kick-start this season.

The win would be a good progression from the improvements shown last time out against Chelsea in that 1-1 draw.

• READ MORE: Crystal Palace key dates for the 2024/25 season: Transfer window, Premier League fixture release, start date and more

Keeping Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi could be key

After predicting an emphatic Crystal Palace win, Merson also had praise for the Eagles’ summer transfer business and players they’d managed to keep hold of.

“We cannot really overlook the fact that Palace certainly have the better players in this contest. I thought signing Trevoh Chalobah from Chelsea was a good move for them.”

Chalobah is a real coup for the Eagles, and instantly bolsters the options at the disposal of Glasner, with his arrival joined by Lacroix from Wolfsburg.

“They’ve also managed to retain the likes of Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze, which is brilliant.”

For Crystal Palace additions will be secondary to the players that were retained this summer, with Guehi being kept despite numerous Newcastle bids, and then as Steve Parish admitted interest in Eze was not as substantial as first thought.

The squad now at Copers Cope is possibly the strongest we have seen in quite some time if not history and so hopes are now very high for the remainder of the season.