Manchester City vs Crystal Palace – Match Preview
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Last weekend saw Manchester City show that it is business as usual for the defending Premier League champions, as they bounced back from suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of Chelsea almost a fortnight ago.
That win came at home to Everton as Gabriel Jesus scored a brace to get the better of Marco Silva’s men, in what eventually would turn out to be a victory by a score line of three goals to one. However, it was not enough to see City end the weekend at the top of the table.
Once again, they find themselves a point behind rivals Liverpool and there is every chance that it could be as many as four by the time the Cityzens play host to Crystal Palace this Saturday afternoon.
That’s because Liverpool play Wolves on Friday evening at Molineux and although a win there for Jurgen Klopp’s men is far from a foregone conclusion, they will be confident of increasing their margin at the top of the table and putting further pressure on City.
If that is to be the case, then it will undoubtedly ask new questions of this star studded City side. When you consider that they won the Premier League at a canter last season, we’ve never really seen them be tested at this level.
It looks easy when you’re top of the table and rolling over teams by four or five goals, but when you have to roll your sleeves up and fight then it undoubtedly is the true measure of just how good a team really is.
And the same can be said for their opposition this Saturday as they face a Crystal Palace side that is just about doing enough to keep itself on the right side of the relegation zone at present, something that was helped by a win last Saturday at home to Leicester.
Going into that game Roy Hodgson’s men had a particularly unwanted record of not winning any of their last 14 matches in which their Ivorian winger Wilfried Zaha was injured, thankfully though it is one that has finally come to an end thanks to a stunning strike from Luka Milivojevic.
However, they cannot rely solely on goals from midfield and really need the likes of Jordan Ayew and Christian Benteke to pull their weight in the final third, especially if they don’t want to be dragged into a real relegation battle.
One option for Hodgson will be to enter the transfer market in January, but as we know talented strikers don’t come cheap and certainly not at that time of year when the available options are fewer and further between.
Palace will make the trip to the Etihad with their usual attacking options and for them this game will represent something of a free hit in terms of outcome, one that in all fairness to the South London outfit looks like being nothing else than a routine home win for Manchester City.
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