'It has been an incredible rise'

Taking on Mark Lawrenson in this week's Premier League predictions is actor, writer, producer and Crystal Palace fan Jim Piddock.

Piddock, now based in Los Angeles, is a lifelong Eagles supporter who helped save the club from bankruptcy in 1999 when he founded the Crystal Palace Supporters' Trust.

"These are halcyon days. Having supported Palace for more than 50 years, I have been through everything," Piddock told BBC Sport.

"There have been plenty of highs and lows along the way. I remember when we won the Championship play-offs at Wembley in 2013 when I had got to know the club's owners - Steve Parish, Steve Browett, Jeremy Hosking and Martin Long.

"We had been so near to extinction again only a couple of years before, so achieving this was just incredible.

Palace have stayed in the Premier League ever since, when their previous three promotions had been followed by immediate relegation back to the second tier.

"It has been an incredible rise," added Piddock. "Not a meteoric one, but we have been really solid - this is our ninth successive season in the top flight, when we had never really felt established before.

"I think Steve Parish has been absolutely brilliant as chairman, and the decisions and choices he has made have grown the club incrementally. If he makes a mistake, he very quickly corrects it.

"I'm not just talking about managers. Steve brought in Dougie Freedman as director of football in 2019, and Dougie is just rigorous in his study of young players and their development.

"You can see how much influence both men have had on the club from our young players that have come through, because for them it is about character as much as it is ability. You can see that in our team now and I hear everyone at the club talk about the spirit there - there are no bad apples."

Find out how Lawro and Jim Piddock think the weekend's fixtures will go