Crystal Palace are set for a trip to the bet365 Stadium on Saturday to take on Stoke City for their 37th Premier League game. Just one more win and the Eagles can place all relegation concerns behind them.
The visitors have won 2 in their last 3 and drew the other. Last weekend was the total dismantling of the 9th placed Leicester City side by 5 goals to nil, which pushed the Eagles as far as the 11th spot of the points table. Now the relegation scraps are a whole 6 points away.
Stoke, on the other hand, are still 3 points behind the safety line. Southampton are ahead by 2 and have a game in hand.
It is a do or die situation for the Potters and Paul Lambert will have to pull off a miracle in the final two games of the season, starting with this one. Taking on a high-morale Palace squad will be no easy task and the 48-year-old will have to win the tactical battle over Hodgson.
The last time these two sides met was back in late November. The tie ended 2-1 in favour of Palace.
It was a highly thrilling fixture with both sides level until late in the game. Mamadou Sakho managed to score with a header in injury time to get his team only their second win of the season.
Maybe a similar story will ensue on Saturday. However, the desperation of relegation survival and home court advantage does place Stoke with better odds to win it.
Here is how the Eagles might line up on gameday.
Formation: 4-4-2
Defence
Wayne Hennessey is the current number one ahead of Julian Speroni after finding a bit of consistency in between the sticks.
Joel Ward might feature on the right back position with Patrick van Aanholt on the left.
James Tomkins and Martin Kelly are to pair up in the centre-back roles. Mamadou Sakho has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
Scott Dann, too, is nursing a knee injury.
Jeffrey Schlupp could make a substitute appearance.
Midfield
Luka Milivojevic and Yohan Cabaye are the predicted starters in the holding midfield role.
The flanks are to be covered by James McArthur and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Connor Wickham and Jason Puncheon have also been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Attack
Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend are to pair up in the strike. Clearly, this attacking lineup is working better than the Alexander Sorloth and Christian Benteke partnership.
