Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira knows his side are in for a 'tough game' when they visit Goodison Park to take on Everton on Thursday night.
Everton fans have turned up the dial both before and during games at home recently, with supporters showing up in their thousands and lining up on the street as the team coach makes its way towards Goodison Park. This has led to the club changing the route to the stadium ahead of Thursday night's game to Palace in order to make things safer and to allow more fans to take part.
The pre-match antics played a major role in the hard-fought win against Chelsea and though it was repeated again before the Brentford game, the Toffees were on the wrong end of an agonising defeat. However, the mood around the stadium has changed as the season draws to a close and the club look to maintain their place in the Premier League.
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Goodison Park is sure to be rocking once again on Thursday night in a match where victory on Merseyside and results elsewhere could secure survival and Vieira is expecting a 'tough game' as he knows Frank Lampard's side must secure all three points and not head into the final game of the season needing a win.
"The last couple of games that they played at home the atmosphere was unbelievable," Vieira said in his pre-match press conference. "They are in a really difficult position, they need to win and we expect a tough game - a difficult one. But we will want to play of course as best as we can and the objective is always to try to win the game."
The last time the two sides met resulted in a 4-0 win for Palace in the FA Cup quarter-finals, though the scoreline didn't tell the full story over the course of 90 minutes. Everton started the brighter of the two sides and Vieira admitted that his team were second best in the opening 20 minutes before Marc Guehi's opener turned the tide.
"It was a game that I learned a lot about the players because there’s always a question mark about how you manage the game when you are in a really difficult period and in that game I was really pleased because especially in the first 20 minutes we didn't play well and I think they were really good.
"We remained calm and we managed that difficult period really well and then we went and scored that goal on the set-piece and after that, I think we managed the game really well and we started to play with more belief and confidence and we managed to go through. That was a really good game because of the way we managed it and that is something that we will have to keep in our mind for the game tomorrow."
