Manchester City – Crystal Palace (Premier League)
Manchester City and Crystal Palace face each other this Saturday, at Etihad Stadium (Manchester). This is a match of Premier League´s 36th round. Unbeaten in their last 4 Premier League matches, drawing two, Manchester City arrive here with some confidence. Crystal Palace, on their turn, arrive here after an underwhelming performance, losing at their home against Burnley (0-2).
Manchester City hold the 4th place in the Premier League table with 66 points, which comes from 19 victories, 9 draws and 6 defeats, with 65 goals scored and 37 goals conceded. The team has been presenting mixed results, since in their last 5 official matches, in this competition, they have won 2 matches, drew 2 and lost the other one. This sequence of results started with a 2-1 away loss against Chelsea, that was followed by a 3-1 home win against Hull City, a 0-3 away win against Southampton, a 0-0 home draw against Manchester United and a 2-2 away draw against Middlesbrough.
At home in the Premier league, so far, the team has played 16 matches: won 8, drew 7 and lost 1, that is, they have been making good use of the home advantage, since, this season, they have only lost once. In addition, they have scored consistently: they have 27 goals scored and 15 conceded. Definitely, it’s at home that this group led by Pep Guardiola is stronger and has better performances. These final matches are their chance to strengthen their place on the final Champions League position.
Gundogan, Claudio Bravo and Kun Aguero are out. David Silva is a questionable player.
Probable Lineup: Caballero – Navas, Kompany, Otamendi, Clichy – Touré, Fernandinho – Sterling, De Bruyne, Sané -Gabriel Jesus.
Crystal Palace hold the 16th place in the table with 38 points, which comes from 11 victories, 5 draws and 19 defeats, with 46 goals scored and 56 goals conceded. Lately, the team has been presenting very disappointing performances, since in their last 6 official matches, in this competition, they have won 2, lost 3 and drew 1. This sequence of results started with a 3-1 away loss against Southampton, that was followed by a 3-0 home win against Arsenal, a 2-2 home draw against Leicester City, a 1-2 away win against Liverpool, a 0-1 home loss against Tottenham and as mentioned before a 0-2 home loss against Burnley. Palace are now are six points above the relegation zone.
Away from home, in this competition, so far, the team has played 17 matches: won 6 drew 3 and lost 8. They have 26 goals scored and 31 conceded. Against all odds, this group led by Sam Allardyce is stronger and has better performances away from their home ground. They have won 3 of their last 4 away matches, with 7 goals scored and just 5 conceded in the process.
Wickham, Dann, Tomkins and Sakho are out due to injury. Remy and Souaré are questionable players.
Probable Lineup: Hennessey – Ward, Kelly, Delaney, Aanholt – McArthur, Milivojevic – Zaha, Pucheon, Townsend – Benteke.
Manchester City won their last 5 matches against Crystal Palace.
After struggling at home, Place will now struggle at Etihad Stadium in order to secure survival. Pep Guardiola’s side, with very talented players and home advantage, will try their best and win this match, assuring a 10-match undefeated run.
