Crystal Palace head to Brighton this evening in desperate need of their first Premier League win of 2023.

Despite this winless run, Crystal Palace are still 12th but, due to the irregularity of the table this season, are now closer to 20th (five points) then they are to 11th (eight points).

Palace were resolute and hard to break down for 78 minutes against Premier League Champions Manchester City, before a brief lapse in concentration saw City awarded a penalty. Haaland duly slotted home to take all three points at Selhurst Park.

Michael Olise’s error to clumsily bring İlkay Gündoğan down in the box after such a patient defensive performance can be added to the ever-growing list of small margins that have dragged the Eagles into the relegation battle.

The fight to relaunch the season starts with a trip to Brighton to continue a fierce rivalry which is commonly known as the A23 derby.

Brighton drew with Leeds on the weekend, but dispatched West Ham 4-0 the week before. They are seventh in the table and may be eyeing European qualification with recent inconsistency for Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham, who are the teams above them.

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Palace are still suffering with a severe lack of goals, an issue that even the return of their top Premier League goal scorer of all time has yet to fix.

Roberto De Zerbi, on the other hand, seems to have freed his team up in front of the goal, after fans bemoaned the struggle for goals earlier in his tenure. The Seagulls drew 3-3 with Liverpool in his first game, but then went on a scoring drought, failing to convert 54 shots in the next three games.

Since then, they have failed to score in only two games, a Carabao Cup game against Charlton which they lost on penalties and a 1-0 loss to Fulham almost a month ago.

So with the need to score goals and the season on a knife-edge, how might Palace line up?

Possible xi (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Guaita

Defenders: Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell

Midfield: Doucoure, Lokonga, Zaha

Doucoure returns to the side after serving his one-match suspension and will be at the base of the midfield to protect a defensive line that is performing well this season. The change in the formation allows Lokonga to play a more advanced role and display the box-to-box qualities that enticed Arsenal to buy him form Anderlecht.

Zaha needs to be more involved in palace’s attacking play and so playing him in behind the striker as an attacking midfielder might be the best use of his talents. He is their best player and isolating him as a lone striker will limit his influence.

Forwards: Eze, Eduard, Olise

The issue for Palace’s strikers is they lack support and find themselves on their own, which does not help players who are already low on confidence.

Eze and Olise are two of the league’s most exciting players and promoting them to more traditional wingers might present more goal-scoring opportunities, which is an area of the game they both need to improve on.