Oliver Glasner wants to reinstate some defensive stability into Crystal Palace ahead of their Premier League meeting with Aston Villa on Wednesday.

Palace are winless in their last five league matches, only picking up a single point during that run – a 1-1 draw with Fulham – and losing the other four, including a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United last time out.

As such, they have dropped down the table in recent weeks, and they are now 14th on 27 points heading into matchday 21.

Glasner, who is being heavily linked with the Manchester United job following Ruben Amorim's dismissal, pinpointed sloppy defending on set-pieces as a cause of their loss to Newcastle on Sunday and noted that certain absentees have played a part in that weakness.

"We have to solve the problem of conceding goals from set-plays so often," Glasner said of the defeat to Newcastle.

"There are a few explainable reasons. Maybe with Chris Richards [injured], we don't have one of our best headers in the box available. With Ismaila Sarr [at the Africa Cup of Nations], who plays a key role on the near post and is also quite tall.

"He's not here, and [injured] Dani Munoz was a good presence with his physicality.

"On the other side, this won't change until Wednesday."

Villa, meanwhile, are third in the table, six points behind leaders Arsenal, with the chance to close the gap at the top to three as the Gunners are not in action until Thursday.

Having suffered a 4-1 loss to Mikel Arteta's side in their final game of 2025 – their only loss in their last 10 Premier League matches – Villa bounced back with a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest.

John McGinn scored twice in that victory, with Ollie Watkins adding the other goal, and the striker hailed the captain's influence on the team.

"I can't speak highly enough of Ginny when he's playing like that; he's unbelievable," said Watkins.

"Very difficult to get the ball off. You can put him in any position, and he's always going to put in a good performance for you.

"I think that's why he's the captain; he leads by example and credit to him, coming back into the starting 11 and scoring those two goals as well."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Crystal Palace – Jean-Philippe Mateta

Jean-Philippe Mateta has been involved in more Premier League goals against Aston Villa than he has any other opponent (nine – six goals, three assists).

Eight of these have come in his last five appearances against the Villans.

Aston Villa – Ollie Watkins

Since the start of December, no player has scored more Premier League goals than Watkins (six, level with Dominic Calvert-Lewin).

He is looking to score in four or more consecutive appearances in the competition for just the third time, and first since April 2023.

MATCH PREDICTION: ASTON VILLA WIN

Villa have lost three of their last four Premier League games against Palace (D1). They have conceded 14 goals in these four games, as many as they had in their previous 15 against the Eagles in the competition.

And following their 3-0 win at Villa Park in August, Palace are looking to complete their first league double over Villa since 2013-14.

However, the supercomputer is favouring Villa for this one. They have picked up 42 points in their 20 Premier League games this season (W13 D3 L4).

A win here would have them on 45+ points from their opening 21 matches of a league campaign for just the third time (assuming three points/win all-time), after 1895-96 (45) and 1898-99 (48), both seasons in which they won the top-flight title.

And Palace have lost four of their last five Premier League games (D1), more than their previous 21 beforehand (W9 D9 L3).

It is also not a good omen for Palace that they are winless in their last five home Premier League matches (D2 L3), their worst run without a victory at Selhurst Park since going seven in a row between September and December 2023 under Roy Hodgson.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Crystal Palace – 30.8%

Draw – 25.1%

Aston Villa – 44.1%