Crystal Palace away preview.
We're back and we won't be going away until March now. Super. First up, Saturday 3pm in south London at Selhurst Park. A difficult match, all Premier League matches away from hard are hard. They will play to frustrate and counter quickly. Remy will be their biggest threat, he's quick, powerful and can cause problems in the air. Benteke too, but his pace shouldn't cause City too many problems, so his threat will come from set pieces and in the air. If City play a safe and sensible game, they shouldn't lose. I think City will start with pace and look to score in the first half and tire Palace in the second. If City can defend properly, they should have enough about them to win. But Middlesbrough proved nothing in concrete and that City's defence isn't very good. Palace will fancy their chances but I'm confident that the rest and break will do City good. I'm hoping the bad result from Middlesbrough will still be in their mind and make the team determined to get back to winning and playing well. If City do that, they should win. But I know better than to presume in England that 'should' means will. Crystal Palace are capable of causing an upset and winning this game. City travel to their backyard and that makes this game the oh more difficult. I'll move onto the opposition view.
Crystal Palace are not a quick, high pressing team which means that suits Manchester City. They won't be in their faces, they will look to defend in numbers are attack with chances. They play a lot like Everton, but in my opinion, they don't have the quality of Everton. Only Lukaku's magic wand stopped City winning that game and Benteke and Remy are very good players, but Lukaku is similar to both of them put together. If they play together (that's two up front, suicide against City to play like that) then City will dominate possession, we'll be looking at 70-80% overall. Their fans won't be happy watching them defend so deep and see so little of the ball, particularly if they don't score. I fancy that if City get ahead, the game will open up and the game will be a better game. If Palace can get ahead, they will sit and counter when they can. Apart from their attackers, I don't see any outlet for them. Townsend and Puncheon, if either play, offer pace to City's back line but I imagine defence is their priority tomorrow. I think this game suits Man City. I'm going for 1-0 Man City, Iheanacho to break the deadlock in the first half and City hold. I hope they can defend properly and keep a clean sheet. It will be good for the team.
For City, I imagine most of the South American players will not start. We may see them later on. Pep Guardiola says the whole squad is fit and Yaya has apologised, will he make an appearance in the squad and on the bench? There are a lot of games coming up over the next few months, I suspect we may see him if relations improve between Yaya and Pep. I hope so as Yaya could easily do a job as a rotation player. Sagna is back fit. Perfect with Zaba just returning from Argentina duty. I don't think Sagna will be rushed back, so Maffeo could feature on the bench or start. Clichy too. I think Kolarov will start, if Kompany is fit to start then he'll slot into centre back with Stones, Kolarov to the left and perhaps Maffeo or Sagna at RB. I think it'll be 3 at the back though. If Kompany isn't fit, we could see Clichy into the left and Kolarov in the centre. I don't think Otamendi will feature, Fernandinho either. So that'll be Fernando and Gundogan sitting in front of the defence and to the wide, Sterling, Navas, Sane, Nolito (take your pick of two of them). Silva and KDB will slip in farther up the field and Iheanacho up top. Aguero won't start as he's only just returned from international duty from South America. Bravo will play however. Goalkeepers don't need a lot of fitness, they can train for a day and play the next. We saw it in the derby and we will probably see it again tomorrow.
Team prediction for tomorrow:
Bravo, Stones, Kolarov, Clichy, Fernando, Gundogan, Sterling, Nolito, Silva, De Bruyne, Iheanacho.
We'll see how right I am on Sunday. I'll blog the review on Sunday too. Until then, enjoy the return of Premier League and Championship football and football across Europe. Enjoy your weekends.
