Manchester City look to move towards the brink of a fifth Premier League title as they visit Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the first of Saturday’s quadruple header.
Victory will see Palace all but guarantee safety for another season, whereas a win will move Man City 13 points clear at the summit and one win away from the title.
Team News
Gary Cahill is set to return for Crystal Palace after recovering from an unspecified injury which kept him out of Monday’s defeat at Leicester.
Mamadou Sakho (thigh) and James Tomkins (eye) could both return if declared match fit, as James McArthur (muscle), Nathan Ferguson (thigh) and Connor Wickham (knock) remain absent.
Man City have no fresh injury concerns to report after Wednesday’s Champions League win at PSG, although John Stones is serving the second of a three match domestic ban.
Stat Attack
- Crystal Palace have lost three of their last six meetings against Manchester City (W1, D2, L3).
- Man City have dropped just two points in their last five league trips to Selhurst Park (W4, D1).
- Palace have scored first in just two of their last five matches (W1, D1, L3).
- John Stones’ red card at Aston Villa was City’s first sending off in 17 away league matches, since Fernandinho was dismissed in a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea last June.
- This is Palace’s first home game to be refereed by David Coote since losing 3-2 to Chelsea in July towards the end of last season.
Prediction
Having not played for a fortnight prior to Monday’s defeat at Leicester, Palace should be pleased with how they played in terms of their pressing and passing tactics yet poor finishing and some defensive mistakes in man marking eventually cost them.
Man City meanwhile will be hoping for a much better performance than we saw in midweek, in which they initially struggled to cope defensively with PSG’s high energy before turning things around with a more controlled second half display.
On that note, I think Palace will have to literally come out and try and get on the front foot early because if they play like they did on Monday, they could stand a chance otherwise this should be a routine City win irrespective of squad changes.
Prediction: Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester City
Result: Crystal Palace 0-2 Manchester City
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