What to Watch For: Manchester City Travel to Crystal Palace in EPL

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – JANUARY 16: Pablo Zabaleta of Manchester City and Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium on January 16, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images) /

After a lengthy international break due to World Cup Qualifiers, Manchester City return to league action on Saturday as they travel to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace.

Pep Guardiola‘s side were ousted out of the top spot in the league and will look to take it back from Liverpool. They currently sit in third place but are coming off a 1-1 draw vs Middlesbrough back on November 5th.
In this fixture last season, Kelechi Iheanacho netted a 92nd minute winner to give Manchester City three points on their travels to South London.

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Crystal Palace, in their second season under

Alan Pardew

, have struggled recently suffering four consecutive league defeats. They are in 16th place, but only one point from slipping into the relegation zone.

Palace have brought in players such as Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend, Mathieu Flamini, and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda but lost a huge contributor in Yannick Bolasie to Everton. According to BBC Sport, Mandanda’s services will be missed due to a knee injury, so Wayne Hennessey will be in-goal.

For Manchester City, the time to get back on track is now. They also travel to Burnley later this month before having six league fixtures in the busy month of December.

Heading into what could be an interesting match tomorrow, here is what to watch for as MCFC face Crystal Palace.

1.) City Wing-backs have to shut down Townsend, Zaha.
A big reason for Crystal Palace’s struggles are the lack of productivity from Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha. Both players provide pace, skill, and opportunities from the wide positions and could case havoc for City’s wingbacks whoever gets the starting nod. With aging defenders such as Alex Kolarov, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, and Pablo Zabaleta, they could be forced to play a little more conservatively in the back-line to keep an eye on these speedsters.

2.) Look for Pep to have forwards attack early and often.
On paper, this is a game for Manchester City to have no issues with. A team that is sitting in 16th and struggling should be a cakewalk, then again that is why they play the game. In fear of a result like the 1-1 draw vs Boro look for Pep to have his attackers ready to go from the first whistle. Manchester City need to score multiple goals to win and they need to put their foot on the throttle for the entire 90+ minutes. If they continue to play generously with a one-goal cushion, then they could see points dropped again against winnable opponents.

3.) Look for Kevin De Bruyne to play higher and David Silva out wide.
Both of these midfielders are crucial to Manchester City’s success. Kevin De Bruyne is sometimes unstoppable when on good form and David Silva is a world-class assist man. I believe that Pep will have Silva play out left with KDB slightly under Aguero to provide more pressure on the Palace back-line. These two players will be counted on heavily to run the offense and to also provide goal-scoring opportunities themselves.

Next: Combined Best XI: Manchester City vs. Crystal Palace

It’s definitely great to have the EPL back again and I feel we will see a 3-0 victory for Manchester City on the road in a tough place to play. Aguero, De Bruyne, and

Nolito

will all net goals as City look to jump back to top spot in the league.