Crystal Palace v Manchester City Match Preview

Manchester City prepare to face bogey side Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday  at 17:30.

There is a fine chance on Saturday for Manchester City to brush away some of those clouds of gloom which have lingered since the defeat to Wolves and reclaim some form by brushing aside Crystal Palace tomorrow.

Sure, Palace are one of the form teams in the League since the start of the year and yes, they did even beat us at the Etihad last season. But good teams win games like this, when the chips are down and City are a good team.

Palace will be riding high on the buzz of their own performances and no doubt bolstered because they will believe there is a chink in our armour, that our defence is vulnerable. Yet, it is up to City to show Palace that is not in fact the case.

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A difficult looking away tie against a side who are solid, well organised and capable of mounting a fast counter attack looms. This will present a stern test for City and it will be interesting to see whether team manager Pep Guardiola alters his approach to compensate.

Will Pep protect his defence or attack from the off? More likely, we will attempt both but let us hope we do not just resort to hopeful crosses in the 50th minute. We know that aimless crosses into the area tend to signal a paucity of ideas and failure of intent.

Setting up for this match City are likely to offer different tactical approaches in both defensive and attacking phases of the game. Moving from a 4-1-2-2-1 to a more usual 4-3-3. Such a fluidity is becoming a hallmark of our side and will allow us to try and stretch Palace to look for spaces.

Luckily some of the storm clouds have lifted and Guardiola has both John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne available for selection. This is a welcome bonus and should help City to offer some solutions to their issues. Benjamin Mendy has also trained but seems not quite ready, according to the comments made by Guardiola during the Press Conference.

Accordingly it is likely City will start with Kyle Walker and Oleksandr Zinchenko at full back. The centre of defence will be Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones, who will have a chance to cement their partnership.

Midfield is more difficult to predict with De Bruyne and Rodri being joined by either Fernandinho or Ilkay Gundogan or even David Silva. Bets on Phil Foden would appear to be supported wiyth long odds.

At least the front three largely picks itself with Sergio Aguero being joined by Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez. Bernardo is the player currently snapping at the heels of these three for contention and he has had a good international break for Portugal. I still believe it is more likely he will deployed as legs tire.

Palace will need to be at their best to come away with a result and in many ways you would think they may have already used up all of their luck in the games against us last season. I fancy City to really turn it on in this game and make a statement. Let us hope so because our travelling fans have a long journey across South London and those are so much easier basking in the aftermath of a deserved victory!

Three points is the minimum requirement from this game and anything else puts City in some difficulty. Now is the time for the team to come out fighting.