Crystal Palace have been struck by a Covid-19 outbreak ahead of today’s Premier League London derby at Tottenham.
The Eagles saw a late request to postpone the Boxing Day fixture rejected and will be without manager Patrick Vieira in N17 following his positive test.
Christian Benteke, Vicente Guaita, Michael Olise, Luka MilivojeviÄ, Nathaniel Clyne and Eberechi Eze are all absent for Palace today, while James McArthur is missing because of a hamstring injury.
Nathan Ferguson makes the match day squad for the first time since signing for the club in the summer of 2020, while the only change to the starting XI from the draw with Southampton on December 15 sees Marc Guehi make way for Joachim Andersen.
Wilfried Zaha, Jordan Ayew and Cheikhou Kouyate are all available over the festive period before they go off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January, while Palace have only named seven substitutes.
Speaking on Friday, Vieira said: “We hope we’re going to be okay [to face Spurs] but when you’re looking at the number of cases around we start to be worried. We had a couple of cases in the last couple of days.
“We try our best to prevent the situation but it is worrying because the evolution for the next couple of days we don’t know how it will go.”
Crystal Palace starting XI: Butland, Ward, Andersen, Tomkins, Mitchell, Gallagher, Kouyate, Hughes, Ayew, Edouard, Zaha
Subs: Guehi, Mateta, Schlupp, Matthews, Kelly, Ferguson, Riedewald
Where: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
When: Sunday, December 26, 15:00
Referee: Jonathan Moss
