Premier League surprise package West Ham entertain Crystal Palace at the London Stadium as life without fans returns to the capital.
2,000 supporters were in attendance as the Hammers lost 3-1 to Manchester United a little over a week ago, but it's a return to the new normal this time around after tighter government protocols were announced for London and its surrounding areas.
On the field, David Moyes' side bounced back from that disappointing defeat with victory at Leeds last Friday, while Palace battled to claim a point against league leaders Tottenham at Selhurst Park.
Here's 90min's preview of a game that Palace edged last season thanks to Jordan Ayew's late VAR inspired winner.Where to Watch
When Is Kick Off? Wednesday 16 December
What Time Is Kick Off? 20:00 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? London Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? Amazon Prime (UK)
Referee: David Coote
Team News
West Ham are again without Michail Antonio and Arthur Masuaku, but otherwise it's a relatively clean bill of health for Moyes and co.
Sebastien Haller is horrendously out of touch in front of goal, but his presence did help showcase Said Benrahma's abilities on his first Premier League start. Consequently, the Ivory Coast international's place in the side should be secure, with any other changes likely to be down purely to rotation and maintaining fitness.
Palace have been unchanged in their last two Premier League outings, and only have Martin Kelly and summer signing Nathan Ferguson as notable absentees.
Christian Benteke's place in the team could be under threat, despite his recent two-goal showing against West Brom, because Jordan Ayew has an exceptional record against the Hammers; he has four goals against them in his career, and netted the winner in both of last season's games.
Predicted Lineups
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek, Lanzini; Bowen, Benrahma, Haller
Crystal Palace: Guaita; Clyne, Kouyate, Cahill, Van Aanholt; Riedewald, McArthur, Townsend, Eze; Zaha, Ayew
Recent Form
West Ham are second only to Manchester United in the form table, after picking up four wins from their last five Premier League games.
Victories against struggling Fulham and Sheffield United have been supplemented with useful wins over Aston Villa and Leeds, both of whom have enjoyed their own impressive starts to the 2020/21 season.
Palace have been more up and down this season, but have recently found their goalscoring touch; smashing four past Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds before netting five at The Hawthorns against West Brom a couple of outings ago.
The Eagles have slipped to defeats against Burnley and Newcastle in their last five, but did pick up a useful point at the weekend as Jeffrey Schlupp's second half goal earned a share of the spoils against Spurs.
Here's both sides last five results in detail.
West Ham
Leeds 1-2 West Ham (11/12)
West Ham 1-3 Manchester United (05/12)
West Ham 2-1 Aston Villa (30/11)
Sheffield United 0-1 West Ham (22/11)
West Ham 1-0 Fulham (07/11)
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace 1-1 Tottenham (13/12)
West Brom 1-5 Crystal Palace (06/12)
Crystal Palace 0-2 Newcastle (27/11)
Burnley 1-0 Crystal Palace (23/11)
Crystal Palace 4-1 Leeds (07/11)
Prediction
Palace's double over the Hammers last season was rather out of character, as the previous eight meetings had seen the Eagles fail to emerge victorious.
West Ham also appear to be a different animal this season, owing to a new found resilience and savvy work in the transfer market, and that makes the hosts favourites to take away three points.
That said, the impressive duo of Ebere Eze and Wilfried Zaha are more than capable of hauling Palace into any game, and they could help earn their side a share of the spoils.
Prediction: West Ham 1-1 Crystal Palace
Source: 90min