67% of points won on the road – Why are Palace so much better in away games this season?

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Palace vs Villa 

©IMAGO

On the one hand, Crystal Palace go into Tuesday night’s clash with Aston Villa with plenty of reason to be confident of winning all three points. Oliver Glasner’s side have been in superb form since the turn of the year, picking up more points in the first two months of 2025 than all but three clubs in the English top-flight. Such form has seen the club climb from 15th to 13th in the Premier League and the prospects of a top-half finish come May are certainly within reach for the London club. 

However, on the other hand, Palace ought to be extremely wary of visiting Villa. Not only have Unai Emery’s side also enjoyed their own resurgence in recent weeks, having just overcome Chelsea at the weekend, but Villa also make the trip to Selhurst Park knowing that it isn’t the fortress that it once was. For all of Palace’s impressive form this season, the club seem to have developed some truly contrasting form at home and in away games. And it’s hard to tell whether it’s holding Glasner’s team back in the league or helping them surge up the rankings. 

Crystal Palace’s contrasting Premier League form 

Indeed, the remarkable disparity in Palace’s fortunes in home and away games this season are clear for all to see when we illustrate the comparison of their league form in the graphic above. As we can see, at home this season Glasner’s side have picked up just 11 points from 13 games, giving them a points-per-game average of just 0.85. Not only is that the 16th best return in the league this season, but it also explains why Palace haven’t won a league game at Selhurst Park since a narrow 2-1 victory over Southampton on December 29. And it’s not hard to see why the club are struggling, when we consider that they’ve scored just 12 goals in that time and conceded almost twice as many. 

When we then consider Palace’s away form, it looks like league metrics for an entirely different team. Not only do Palace have the 4th best away record in the Premier League this season, but they’re also averaging almost twice as many points per away game than they do in front of their own fans. That has led to Glasner’s side picking up 67% of their total league points on the road this season in a run of form that has seen the club go unbeaten in nine straight league matches. Remarkably, at Selhurst Park the club look like a team fighting off relegation but away from home they look like a team pushing for the Champions League. 

Why are Palace so good in away games? 

Perhaps a useful way to compare Palace’s contrasting form this season is to stack their records against each Premier League opponent side by side, so we can easily draw a comparison between their home and away form. As the graphic above illustrates, Palace clearly have more victories (green) in the away game column and more draws (orange) and defeats (red) in the home game column, but when we consider their record per club we can see that it doesn’t quite match up. And that the club’s contrasting fortunes may in fact be due to a unique quirk in the fixture list. 

For example, as we can see in the graphic above, Palace have won four of their seven away games against teams in the bottom half of the table. However when we look at the corresponding home form against teams in the bottom half of the table, we can also see that they’ve only lost three of their seven games. To date, Glasner’s team have won 16 points in away games against teams in the bottom half of the table and just eight in home games, but they’ve also yet to face Wolves and Leicester City at home, alongside a tricky away game against Tottenham Hotspur. And in only one instance have the club beaten a team away from home this season but lost the corresponding home match, which happened to be a 2-0 defeat to West Ham at the start of the league campaign. 

We can see a similar convergence of form against teams in the top half of the table too. While Palace have lost to Fulham at home and beaten them away, there’s no other example of this apparent Jekyll & Hyde form among the rest of the top half. Surprisingly, in the games against the teams placed 4th to 8th, Palace have been just as adept at wrestling a point off bigger clubs at Selhurst Park as they have been away from home. And while they have won nine points from away games in comparison to just three won in home matches, they still need to travel to Anfield and the Emirates, as well as away games against Manchester City and Newcastle. While home clashes against Bournemouth, Brighton and tonight’s game against Villa beckon with the prospect of some much-needed points in front of their own fans. 

So are Palace really much better in away games this season? There’s no doubt that Glasner’s side have put in some remarkable performances on the road and that their spot in the league table is down to the points won in such games, but much of that may be due to the club playing more away games against teams in the bottom half of the table. If the club can pick up home wins against the likes of Ipswich, Wolves and even Villa, then the currently contrasting form may begin to edge closer together and begin to level off before the end of the season. But to do that, Glasner and his team will need to continue the impressive form they’ve shown on the road and apply it to their forthcoming home games.